Slayer
by Scribe
Summary: (Completed!) Following Wrecked, a demon deciding to take revenge on Spike, takes away the one things he loves, Buffy Summers and leaves him with the memory of a town he never visited in the Old West (Buffy/Magnificent Seven X over)
1. Prologue

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SLAYER

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Prologue:

William's Tale

He had been a poet. 

Long ago in that other life where he had been weak, when his spirit was crushed easily by harsh words spoken by the cruel who knew nothing of him, he had salved his tears of his wounded heart by allowing them to bleed on paper. He was good, he knew he was, even though the taunts of others had branded him with the cruel appellation of William the Bloody Awful. He had swallowed thickly when the words were whispered behind his back, just loud enough for him to hear, for what good was a taunt if its victim was oblivious? He clenched his jaw and ignored the insidious pain of their sniggering and continued instead to compose in defiance of their derision.

Her name was Cecily and she was undoubtedly the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his life. They moved in the same circles although in Victorian London that did not necessarily mean the same class. He was considered wellborn but certainly not in the sphere of orbit as Cecily, who seemed beyond him in social distinction but almost by divine right. She was the sun that he could not look at for its brilliance, the stars that he could not reach and when he thought about her, the ache impaled him within until he was forced to scream his pain into the words he composed just for her. 

His worship at her altar progressed what seemed to be an eternity with his mother discouraging it as much as she could. The girl was not for him, she would say and he was determined that his mother was wrong about Cecily because one day he would write the poem that would unlock her heart. He just had to keep trying until it did. Even now, he shuddered at his own naivete. He had never known a woman before Cecily and to him they were creatures shrouded in mystery for which the art of the prose was created. It never occurred to him that women could be as cruel and capricious as men, that their indifference could be as sharp as their empathy and in Cecily's who had more of one than the other, he never imagined she could be cruel.

But she was cruel and after his latest recital, which was not at all well received, thanks to the sniggering and derisive remarks he had heard during the performance, she had confronted him. Her appearance before him seemed like a dream come true and he had actually thought that she had come to tell him that the others were wrong, that the poem he had written for her was not awful but beautiful. He imagined she had come to declare that she had been blind and that she loved him as desperately as he loved her. He thought all this with no inkling of just how wrong he was going to be. She looked at him not with admiration and love but rather disgust and her words haunted him for the next century, even after he had taken her life. 

_You're beneath me._

The memory still stung despite its distance in his past. It curdled inside his stomach and made his blood pound with fury. At the time however, he had not the spirit inside him to feel anger or rage, just a soul-stealing wail of anguish that wanted to escape him like a banshee's cry. Driven away from her presence, he had not paid any attention to anything happening around him, not to the laughter of those who were still amusing themselves at his expense, not the satisfaction of Cecily that finally she had rid herself of her unwanted paramour. All he could think of were her words and they circled inside his head like a vortex, tearing him apart with each swirl. He could feel the tears wanting to come but he refused to weep, not here and not now. He would not show anyone how much she had hurt him.

He was as close to distraught as any one could be after receiving such devastating news and when he spilled out into the crowded streets of a lively London night, he barely paid attention to the faces of those moving past him. He was vaguely aware of running into someone, hardly conscious with whom he had collided with, knowing only that he had said something rude and continued walking. He was desperate to find a quiet place where he could express his grief and nurse the heart ripped in two by the woman he loved and cherished. It did not take him long to find it and he was starting to cave into his sorrow when _she_ appeared.

She was beautiful in a way that Cecily could not be.

Her eyes danced even as she looked at him and there was something in the look of them that almost convinced him she could feel his pain and was drawn to him because of it. He saw desire and need wrapped up in something he could not define and after the pain he had suffered, it was something to realize that his beautiful stranger felt those emotions about _him_. He allowed her to cajole him into her embrace, like a child being coaxed to nurse for the first time. He went to her almost bewildered and uncertain of what to do. She wrapped her arms around and him and drew him to her with those incredible eyes. Transfixed, he did not even notice how cold her skin felt when she started to kiss him.

They say a kiss can change a man's life. It certainly did for him. Her lips devoured his with hunger, driving Cecily further and further away from his mind without his even being aware of it. He felt her hands running through his hair as her kisses became more hungered and she started sliding down his lips, past his jaw, finally arriving at his neck. He closed his eyes lost in sensation and the rapture of feeling a female touch him the way he had always wanted, he felt his body come alive with arousal as she moved down his throat and still her cold breath did not seem all that unnatural.

Not until she bit him.

There was pain and then fear as he tried to pry her away from him but her strength was more than a match for him and after a while he stopped struggling all together. His body became weak as he was drained but then she stopped and he could feel warmth spurting down his skin, soiling his shirt. Absurdly he thought that his mother would be furious to launder such soiled clothes but then his dark angel was looking at him again, his blood on her lips. He wanted to cry out but when his eyes met hers, he recognized something that was almost as forlorn and lonely as he was and so he remained silent. 

"Be mine." She spoke to him.

His eyes widened.

"Be mine my lovely boy," she said again. "We'll be happy."

Her eyes danced as she used her nail and cut a line across her chest. Blood spilled forth from the torn flesh but did not spurt as his did. "Come to me," she urged again like a siren song that would have put Odysseus to the rocks had he deigned to listen. "Come to me and we can be together."

After he went to her, everything changed.

William the poet disappeared in a heartbeat and he became something beyond death, beyond anything. He became a vampire. For a century, he traveled across the world with his dark angel, his Dru and her Sire Angelus and in turn his Sire, Darla. They moved across Europe and the world like a scourge sent from the deepest corner of hell, feeding in the night. His first kill was Cecily and it was sweet to drain her and have her know that in humiliating him as she had done, she had not only sealed his fate but her own. For those who had taken just jest from his poetry, he was not so subtle. 

Death by railroad spike was never a pleasant way to die.

He rather enjoyed administering this form of death and soon he was known by it. They called him Spike and buried William forever. 

As Spike, he was one of the undisputed master vampires. He was the only vampire still alive who had the distinction of killing two slayers, the enemy of all vampires everywhere. The weakness that had dogged his mortal life all but disappeared when he became one of the undead. To this day, he still wondered whether or not this strength he felt was his own or did it come furnished with the demon that took his soul. Whatever the cause of it, Spike pitted himself repeatedly against the slayers, the young women who were chosen to battle vampires everywhere. He killed two of them and become something of a master vampire because of it.

But things went wrong at the turn of century. Angelus had run afoul of a gypsy caravan and had incurred a most unusual punishment for the murder of their favorite daughter; Angelus was returned his soul, something unprecedented for vampires. The return of Angelus soul' destroyed not only one of the most fearsome vampires that ever lived but also splintered the family he had gained in his unlife. With Angelus' soul came his conscience and Angelus became human, like he used to be, Spike would think in disgust. Darla, heartbroken, returned to the Master who had been dwelling under the Hellmouth situated in the town of Sunnydale, waiting for his day of resurrection. Spike and Dru traveled, trying to rekindle the unbridled joy of their life before and failing to do so without their older companions. In Prague, angry villagers hurt Dru and Spike had barely managed to escape with her to safety.

He took care of his angel because he loved her and though he was a demon, that much of William remained with him; his ability to love without question and with utmost loyalty. He treasured her, hunted for her and ensured that nothing harmed her. He loved her the way he would have loved Cecily if she had only given him the chance. He was determined that the malaise that had struck down Angelus and would eventually take Darla's life would not happen to him and Dru, they were eternal and they would love until the end of time. It was a good plan and he ever intention of keeping to it.

Until he came to Sunnydale and once again beheld the sun.

Her name was Buffy Anne Summers and it was ridiculous name as far as he was concerned. It was a name he would have been perfectly content to kill someone for having. Unfortunately the name was attached to the latest slayer and Spike had been so sure that he could despatch this one as easily as he had killed her predecessors. However, it soon became evident that this one would not go easily. No matter how much he tried, it felt harder than all the others and each time he was fighting her, he was also getting to know her. It had been his habit to study his enemy in order to know their weakness before striking but with Buffy it was different. He studied her and he felt her sorrows and thought he kept trying to kill her, he could not help admire her resilience to prevail in light of something almost devastating loss. The weight of her responsibility was a crushing burden he could not even begin to imagine and yet she carried it, all but sixteen years old, because she was the slayer.

Dru knew that he loved Buffy even before he did.

They went their separate ways when Dru turned to someone else but it was he that had left her first, if not in body then certainly in heart. He returned to Sunnydale, uncertain what to do if there was anything. The absurdity of it was beyond belief. He was a vampire and she was the slayer, if there were too more impossible lovers, then it was certainly they. She did not even see him as that but rather a monster. He found her incomplete, broken when he returned. Something about her had resigned to life and prepared to accept what she thought she deserved not what she had earned. Shortly after returning to Sunnydale, a government organization captured him and neutered him by placing a chip in his head that ensured he would not be able to harm humans. 

Desperate for aid, he turned to the slayer because there was no one else and he was too proud to go crawling back to Dru. She gave him assistance though rather ambivalently and strangely enough, they developed a relationship albeit a peculiar one. She learnt of his love for her and cast it aside as Cecily had done but this time Spike was stronger and William was gone. He remained at her side trying to prove himself and when he had almost died for her and her little sister Dawn, she began to acknowledge the effort. After that, they became uneasy allies. He adored her but resigned to being there for her, all the while fighting the urges the chip was subsiding within him. When she died, he thought he would die to until a spell saw her restored to him. He loved her still but was content with friendship, not having her at all was far worse.

Then one day, she kissed him and loved him. Their passion was the light of a thousand stars and he loved a woman not a vampire for the first time in his life. She was real under him and her warmth reminded Spike what it was like to be alive again. Even if he never had her again, he could live on the memory of that night forever because it was perfect. A dream could not have been better. He expected she might be a little shaken with what happened and resolved himself to be there for her, to give her space if she needed it. Not even, a creature of the night, which had seen horrors beyond imagining, could ever suspect her reaction the next morning.

She had called the most wonderful night of his life a freakshow and he a convenience.

It broke his heart inside his chest into a thousand pieces and once again, he felt as he had when Cecily had driven him into Drusilla's arms and into a life of eternal damnation. She saw their entire night together as some horrible aberration and cast him aside as if he were nothing. He wanted to die right then and wondered whether or not she heard him weeping once she had left him in the damaged house when they had consummated their passion.

Now all he could think about was how different his life would have been if Cecily had not existed or better yet, if Buffy did not. He would still be with Dru, not trapped like a neutered animal in Sunnydale, pining for a woman who would never love him and to whom his heart was lost completely.

God, he wished she had never been born.

God was not listening to Spike but someone did.

PART ONE


	2. Chapter 1

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Part One:

Old Acquaintances

He had no idea what he was doing here.

It was not as if she wanted his help or was deserving of it. After what had taken place between them only a few nights ago, he should have turn his back on her for good, not only on her but also on Sunnydale in general. After all, what was there to bind him to the small town perched on the Hellmouth? He was vampire that could only hunt others of his kind and in doing so had earned the animosity of every creature that lurked in the night. The only human he could hurt was the one person in the world that meant everything to him. Not that she gave a damn about that fact, he thought bitterly. Certainly not after what she had said to him the morning after what he considered to be the most passionate night of his life. He had woken up with her in his arm and understood for the first time in a hundred years, that his reason for being was to ensure her happiness. He was prepared to do it too; he would do anything as long as it meant taking that terrible sadness away from her eyes, even for an ins tant.

Unfortunately, she had _not_ felt the same.

He had been convenient, she said. A night's distraction to forget the troubles of her life, unaware that she had pierced his heart with a knife more potent that any stake when those words sunk into him. He felt his insides die again and saw her indifference to all of it. He did not think it was possible for something without a soul to feel so much sorrow. He covered it well of course. Hiding his anguish with sarcasm and glib remarks that served to infuriate her. It allowed him to maintain some vestige of dignity until she left him and he was able to allow his battered heart to show its bruises. Yet despite all this, he was at her side that night, lending a hand to retrieve her wayward sibling from her latest misadventure. After that, he avoided her like the plague, firmly deciding that if she wanted him, then it would be up to her to find him.

It was a good plan and one that Spike, also known as William the Bloody had every intention of adhering to. He was done following her around like a lost puppy. It had been a good plan and one he had stuck to for a number of nights but as things often transpired in Sunnydale, the decision was soon out of his hands. He had been returning to his crypt in the Sunnydale Cemetery when he heard the commotion of a vicious fight. This was hardly unsurprising since the Slayer did her best hunting at the Cemetery. He had almost been tempted to keep going; to let her handle whatever it was that she was battling on her own. She had done it long before he entered her life, he was certain she would continue to do so long after he had left it.

However, making that oath and sticking to that were two different things and Spike invariably found himself drawn to the battle because the truth was, he could not imagine it if she were hurt or worse yet killed. He had been forced to watch her die once and it was without doubt the worst experience of his existence. Even now, he recalled how close he had come to waiting for the sunshine to destroy him, just so that he would not have to know the pain of her loss. If not for the promise he had made to her to keep her sister safe, he would have done it. So he could not watch her die again because it would destroy him as much as it would mean the end for her. He had known what it was like to feel her touch him, to know her passion and while it was an open wound in his heart to know that she had used him, he was still in love with his Slayer.

When he found her, she was fighting a demon he recognized immediately. Almost seventy years ago, they could almost be called friends. The demon had worn another host who had probably expired since the markings he saw on the ground next to where Buffy was presently battling it was part of the ritual in its acquiring a new body. Chronozon was one of the most powerful demons in Hell, a malignant force known to the underworld as the Dweller of the Abyss. If he were to acquire human form again, there was no telling the destruction he could cause, not to mention what he would do the Slayer. As he saw Buffy battling the demon, now clad in the body of a young man, no doubt a practitioner of the dark arts who had bit off more than he intended by summoning Chronozon, Spike could see that the demon was still uneasy in his new form.

"Slayer!" Spike emerged from the darkness. "You have to kill him!"

Buffy paused long enough to see his arrival before she was forced to face her opponent once more, blocking a powerful blow that would have connected with her jaw if she had waited one second more. She caught the young man's arm and held it briefly as she threw a powerful front kick. The demon host stumbled backwards, unaccustomed to fighting in this manner but had not gained power enough to battle in any other way. 

"Slayer! Kill him!" Spike ordered once again.

"No!" Buffy shouted as she saw the host struggling to his feet. "He's not responsible. We have to get what's inside of him out."

"Bloody hell!" Spike growled as he reached her. "You can't help him! The minute his body was taken, it was over. You have no idea what's coming at you! Chronozon is one of the most dangerous demons there is. If you don't kill him now, you won't be able to. You have to do it before he gets stronger!"

"I can't!" Buffy looked at him in confusion. "I can't kill him! He's human!"

"He was human pet!" Spike returned. "He's a demon now!"

"SPIKE!" A new voice cried out in the night and this time it did not belong to either Buffy or Spike.

Both of them stared at the host who until now had been silent during most of their battle.

"William the Bloody, how it is you aid the slayer?" The question came from the host and the tone in which it was delivered was not merely confused but rather outraged.

"I'm slumming." Spike retorted and drew a sharp glare from Buffy at that statement.

"A far cry from the murdering you were doing when we last encountered each other." Chronozon pointed out.

"I'm not here to relive our glory days Chron," Spike said with a sigh, having no desire to have his past misdeeds aired in front of Buffy. It was not as if she had not heard enough tales of his pre-Initiative and Sunnydale days.

Chronozon narrowed his eyes and studied Spike as if he was able to see straight through the vampire into what passed for his heart and soul these days. His reaction was nothing less than astonishment. "You love this human." The disgust in his voice was apparent.

"Oh great," Buffy rolled her eyes. "Can you not manage to be _so_ obvious about it? The last thing I want is for demons to start scribbling my phone number on their bathroom walls."

"Its too late," Spike gave her a satisfied smirk. "I did that last night." 

"You love this human!" Chronozon repeated himself again. "You would ally yourself against the Chosen? You would defile yourself for her? You have her stink all over your skin! And she doesn't even want you!" The demon started to laugh.

"That's it mate," Spike growled, unable to tolerate the indignity of being exposed as a lovesick fool. He glanced at Buffy and said sharply, "I'm going to do you a big favor Slayer and take care of this myself."

"Spike!" Buffy called out, feeling a little guilty for giving Chronozon the means in which to humiliate Spike about his feelings for her. She supposed after how she treated him, he had a right to be angry. However, intervening right now did not seem like a good idea as Spike closed in on the demon inhabiting the body of a human she knew she could not longer save because Spike was right.

Spike saw the leering expression on Chronozon's new face and felt the rage he could not express to his slayer bubble to the surface. He swung his fist out and caught Chronozon on the face. The demon stumbled backwards, staggered by the force behind that first blow. He did not have much chance to recover because no sooner than he had been struck once, Spike swung again, this time even more forcefully than before. This time he could not stop himself from falling. When tumbled to the soft dirt of his newly exhumed grave, Spike was on top of him, swinging punch after punch, until blood began to seep through the fissure of broken skin.

"Spike stop it!" He heard her screaming. "If you're going to do it! Make it fast! Don't make him suffer."

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Not on your life, pet. Spike thought savagely as he saw the host's face bloodied to a pulp. It was at times like this that he wished he had a railroad spike handy. He knew that Chronozon had not really angered him that much but the repressed rage he had felt from being discarded by Buffy like some thing she had scraped off her boot was filling him with a murderous fury and it felt good venting it. He _was_ stronger than Buffy. Something she did not know because he had never cared to show her. In a fight, she could hold her own but Spike could wear her down. He just never had the heart to do it because he loved her even when he did not know it.

"Spike," he heard Chronozon speak again through the haze of his violent rage and this time there was none of the derision that had ignited his anger to begin with. "Spike, I can free you. Accept me into your body and I can make you stronger than you have ever imagined. I can give her to you. Don't you want that? Don't you want to be free of your chains and bound to her forever? I can make that happen."

The demon's voice was soothing and for a moment, almost tempting but Spike knew he could never accept Buffy being given to him. If it were that simple; he would have turned her into a vampire after their heated coupling in that building when she was vulnerable and wanting his touch. No, he wanted Buffy as she was, with all her human frailties and foibles. He loved her warmth and her heart. Her soul was his open book and he wanted to study every page. If she was turned then he would lose all that even though she would be with him for eternity. As inviting as Chronozon's promise was, he did not want that.

"Sorry Chron," Spike said after a moment. "She's a bitch but I like her that way."

Without saying anything further, Spike grabbed the demon by the skull and twisted sharply.

Buffy froze when she heard the squelching sound of a neck being broken. A low wail seemed to scream into the night even though she knew the host would have had no time to scream when Spike took his life. Yet that angry scream out of rage seemed to travel on the breath of wind that suddenly appeared. She shuddered underneath her coat as she saw Spike slowly rising to his feet, wondering why it had suddenly become so cold. This was California. It wasn't supposed to be cold but then she was sure the brochure said nothing about Hellmouths either but here it was.

Spike stood up and stepped away from the dead form of Chronozon's latest host. That had been a little too close to home, perhaps it was time he started thinking about moving on. He did not want the entire demon world knowing that he was the Slayer's pet vamp, one that was foolish enough to fall in love with her, a feeling she would probably die before admitting to feel for him. He turned towards her but did not raise his eyes to meet hers. Chronozon's words had left him stinging and he wanted nothing but to go back to his crypt where he could get properly drunk and forget all about what was said, at least for a few hours.

"She's a bitch but I like her that way?" Buffy glared at him in annoyance as he walked towards her.

"It seemed the best way to explain things to him." Spike retorted and continued past her.

"You knew him?" She asked, somewhat curious as to why he was not lingering to talk to her like he always did. She knew that he was still angry over how she had treated him but he usually got over it. 

"Yeah I knew him." He responded curtly.

Neither noticed the dark force that had chosen to leave the dead body behind them.

"I could have taken care of him myself," she said quickly, not wishing him to think that she was incapable of doing what was necessary to save the world from another demon. She had killed Angel to stop Acathala. After that, a human stupid enough to invite a demon into his body was rather easy. She had no wish to beholding to Spike for anything.

"Fine," Spike replied, not looking at her. "You can deal with him the next time."

"I will." She said firmly.

"Whatever," his voice returned with indifference and Buffy found she did not like that very much. She was accustomed to being the one who walked out on their conversations. He was not supposed to be the one doing the walking How dare he usurp her walking out privileges!

"SPIKE!" 

Any thoughts about walking out or ignoring each other was shunted aside as both of them swung around and saw the dark cloud that suspended over the body. What might have been a faced swirled in the dark mist but neither could make it out clearly, even though they knew who it was with absolute certainty. Chronozon could not exist for long in this plane of existence without a body but he was still hear and judging by the fury in his voice, he was properly angry. 

"What does it take to kill you?" Spike demanded. "I must be going soft hanging around you and the Scooby bunch," he cast an accusatory look at Buffy.

"Oh bite me." Buffy retorted.

"I'd probably choke on you." He snapped back. "Besides, old Chron can't hang around for long can you mate? Without a warm body, you're just another displaced excuse of a London fog."

"Oh Spike," Chronozon's voice started to laugh. It was deep and throaty, filled with malevolence. "You should have taken my offer. I would have given you the world. Now I am going to take it away."

Before Spike could do anything else, there was a surge of excruciating pain where every nerve in his body screamed with agony. A blackness even darker then the night crowded in on his consciousness and somewhere in the distance as he began to succumb to its power, he heard Buffy calling out for him. He opened his mouth to answer her but no sound came and after a second, nothing registered at all.

And the world he knew ceased to be.

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He did not know how long he had been lying in the spot where he had fallen but Spike certainly knew it when it was time to wake up. The first ray of sunshine on the new day awakened him with a sharp searing pain and the smell of burning flesh that that made his return to consciousness a less than pleasant exercise

"Bollocks!" He shouted in pain and sat up abruptly to find himself staring into the fast approaching sunrise. His hand stung with pain as he scrambled out of its light, taking sanctuary in the shade of a nearby tree. Spike squinted as the brightness of the day and immediately searched for a more permanent refuge before his immortal life was cut short rather suddenly. Fortunately, his crypt was not far from where he had been taking his impromptu repose and there was still enough shade to ensure that he could make it home without risking further injury.

Nursing his injured hand, Spike hurried past the gravestones and noted despite his haste to return to safety that something about the cemetery felt wrong. He paused long enough to take a sweeping view of the cemetery and realised that somehow it seemed bigger, vaster. There were gravestones as far as the eye could see and he could not longer tell where its boundaries ended. For a moment, he wondered how that could be until the stinging pain in his hand forced him to shunt the question aside for the moment, since he had more pressing concerns. He took the path back to his crypt and found that it too was laced with peculiarities. After calling it his home for almost two years, Spike had come to know the route back almost intimately. He knew the grooves in the dirt and the bare patches where traffic either by human or demon had worn away the grass.

Now as he took that supposedly familiar path, he found that nothing about it was familiar. It was almost instinct that made him aware of which twists and turns he had to take because the features in the terrain was simply not there. For starters, the grass was overgrown for most of the journey. In some areas, the foliage had almost completely overtaken the gravestones and many of them were covered in lichens and moss. There were no signs of flowers or wreaths left behind by loved ones. If anything, the cemetery seemed rather neglected. He had no time to think about this further because the need to find safety was paramount but he did know it had not looked like this the night before. Perhaps he was still lying on that patch of earth he had just left, dreaming this craziness. He knew the Slayer did not think much of him but she was not that cold to leave him on the ground to burn up in the sunlight. 

If that was true, then where was she?

Another surprise met him when he returned to his crypt. For one thing; it was sealed. He had not sealed it since he had first taken up residence in the place. There was no need to seal it since much of the time he needed to make a quick entry and also there were very few people who would invade a crypt. Knowing someone had been in his private sanctuary, infuriated him but once again, the time constraints forced him to quell his anger for the moment. The stray bolts of sunlight were becoming more and more frequent and soon he would not be able to avoid them all. Bracing himself, he gave the marble door a forceful shove and forced it past the doorway. The slab of marble appeared to have been in place for quite some time and required another push before it finally gave way and allowed him entrance.

Spike entered the room swiftly and stopped short as soon as he was safely inside the cool darkness of the vault. The air was not fresh but dank from being sealed for so long and the mustiness made his heightened senses flinch. There was none of the belongings that made this place his home, nothing but dust and the sealed coffin of the crypt's original resident. 

"What the bloody hell is going on!" Spike demanded with growing anxiety.

It was not just the fact that his things were gone. Far from it actually, it was the fact that the years of dust accumulated over everything was undisturbed as if he had never been here at all. His mind started whirling as he struggled to recall what had happened after he had killed Chornozon. His mind was a little foggy on the details but his memory was intact. He had killed Chronozon's host just before the darkness had overwhelmed him and left him where he had awakened. What had happened to Buffy? Had Chronozon hurt her? Spike's stomach knotted in fear as he thought about that possibility. Chronozon could not have lingered in this plane of existence for long without a host body. However, that was fleeting comfort because even disembodied the demon was a powerful and malignant force capable of much damage.

Chronozon had spoken about making Spike pay. Did that mean harming Buffy? The possibility terrified him and he prayed to whatever he still believed in that she was safe. He convinced himself that the Slayer was strong enough to deal with someone like Chronozon. She had survived all manner of evil since she had been called. The girl had killed the Master, the king Vampire that had reigned so long in Sunnydale before her arrival. She had sacrificed the man she loved to save the world from the demon Acathala and defeated the hell god Glory, not to mention the insidious Mayor of Sunnydale in his bid to become a demon. Surely, she would be able to deal with one sinister disembodied creature from Hell? Then against his will, he remembered that she had died fighting Glory and only a spell had given her new life. If Chronozon defeated her this time, there would be no miraculous resurrection. He would take her into hell and Spike would never get her back again. 

Damn it to hell, he needed to know if his Slayer was still alive!

Unfortunately, there was little he could do for the moment. His injury was considerable and it was becoming hard to ignore the pain. Even though he healed rapidly, it would not be fast enough for his liking and he knew that he needed to rest. Reaching into his duster, he sat down on one of the stone ledges and removed a steel flask from his coat pocket. Holding it awkwardly in between his knees, he managed to unscrew the lid before taking a swig of the alcohol within it. The whiskey tasted as good as it smelled and he took several more hearty swallows in order to numb the pain. 

She could take care of herself as he felt the effects of the liquor. She was the Slayer after all. She had proven to be more than a match for him and he was certain that when he found her, she would waste no time in treating him like dirt while telling him what an absolute pansy he was for passing out on her when she was fighting Chronozon. Spike kept telling himself that as he continued to drink, feeling the pain dull and with its his senses as he drifted into a restless sleep.

************

  
When he woke up again, his hand was no longer aching but the same could not be said for his head. The contents of his flask had left a rather unpleasant reminder of why it was never wise to imbibe too much of the stuff at any given time. Nevertheless it did allow him to endure the healing process his body was required to go through in order for his hand to mend itself. Fortunately, he was not in danger of emulation as he was the last time he awoke and through the open door of the crypt, he could see the moon staring back at him rather indifferently. The night awakened his senses the way the day stilled them and the need to bask in it became overwhelming. He was after all a creature of the night, chip or not. When the moon was at its fullest, it was his time but he would not be hunting for anything but answers.

Examining his hand as he emerged from the crypt, the only signs of the burn he had received was a rapidly diminishing scab of scar tissue over the skin. He flexed his hand experimentally and other than a bit of tightness across the skin, he more or less had full use of it. It was just as well because if Chronozon had hurt Buffy he would perform the incantation to draw out the demon from Hell just so that Spike could kill him all over again. Upon making his way out of the cemetery, Spike realised his initial observation about the cemetery being larger was right. It was bigger. In fact the headstones went so far that he was almost wishing that he had his motorcycle with him. Unfortunately, the bike like the rest of his belongings had disappeared and he had to make the journey on foot. Finally, after what felt like five miles of walking past nothing but headstones and fresh graves (and there seemed to be a lot of those), Spike reached Sunnydale.

At least he thought it was Sunnydale.

The town that he had come to know as a paragon of sunny California living had become a dark parody of itself. Most businesses in the main street were closed and those that were opened were barred with cloves of garlic and crosses hanging for all to see. It appeared as if the good citizens of Sunnydale had finally realised that they were living on a Hellmouth and were taking the proper precautions. Litter covered the streets and the boulevards where people loitered in the evenings were deserted. Spike could not imagine what had happened that would turn Sunnydale into this. Buffy would lose her fucking mind if she saw this, he thought to himself and wondered once again where she was. Involuntarily, he was reminded of what the town had looked like when the vampire population had learnt that the Slayer was dead. The parallels to where he found himself now was so strong that he could barely stand it.

He started hastening his pace as he walked up the empty sidewalk, almost breaking into a run in order to reach the familiar tree lined street where she lived. He had to know that she was alright because everything he saw right now told him she was not. He could not even allow himself to face the possibility that she might be dead because it was too much for him. If he acknowledged that she might be gone then he would simply slink to the floor and wait for the sun to come out again and end his existence. This time he would have the courage to go through with it.

He had not gotten very far when suddenly he heard someone call his name.

"Spike," the voice behind him was familiar but not. He turned around slowly and found himself staring at Xander Harris.

Xander was clad in dark leather and a white T-shirt, looking like someone who stepped out of an old biker movie. Spike could only stare at him for a moment because the young man looked nothing like the whiney whelp the Slayer considered one of her best friends. He looked predatory, wearing a gleam in his eyes that Spike knew all too well. 

__

Oh hell.........

"Xander." Spike returned unable to say anything else because the realization was too impossible. Xander had the scent of a vampire.

"Where have you been?" Xander asked coolly. "The Boss has been looking for you."

"The Boss?" Spike cocked his brow in bewildered. "Who the hell is the Boss?"

"You're not supposed to call him that Xander," a new voice entered the mix and Spike decided then and there that the world had gone completely insane when he saw Willow emerging out of shadows, dressed in black leather and looking so much like Dru that it was scary. She wore the same pout on her lips, the same faraway expression and the same lack of humanity. "Spike knows that, don't you Spike?" 

Willow came to him and ran a finger seductively down his chest, her eyes twinkling in dark passion and Spike knew that she would tear his throat out with the same seductive smile if he gave her the chance. "You won't tell the Master would you?" She asked, her pout becoming most childlike. "I don't want him to get mad at my honey."

Spike could feel the raw lust oozing off every pore of her and found it intoxicating. Red had always been attractive to him but in a sweet, girl next door kind of way. He had never imagined her a vamp, symbolically or literally but she carried it off beautifully and judging by the way that Xander was looking at her, Spike realised that these two were mates as he and Dru had once been. How could Buffy had allowed this to happen? Spike asked himself. How could she fail these two of all people so terribly? He did not like Xander much but he respected their friendship with the Slayer, knowing it could not be easy to be there for someone whom by association alone could risk their lives on so many occasions and often did.

"Who turned you?" Spike managed to ask.

Xander stared back at him and laughed. It was not that nervous chuckle that Spike had become accustomed to hearing from the whelp but sinister and cold. It unnerved him hearing it coming form Xander.

"You're kidding right?"

"Of course he is," Willow laughed winking at Spike and then at Xander. "Spike's just playing with us. He know that he's my sire and then you were my sire."

"I did this to you?" He almost choked at the horror of it. "When did I do this to you and how am I still bloody walking around if I did? The slayer would have had my guts for garters by now.'

"The slayer?" Xander started to laugh harder. "Are you alright Spike? You killed the last slayer. What was her name again?" He asked Willow, unable to remember.

"Kendra," Willow replied. "Pretty Kendra. We left her all for you Spike. You like to do the Slayers. You do them best."

This was getting worse by the minute and Spike wondered if he had walked into a bad dream because this had to be a dream. It could not possibly be real. And who the bloody hell was Kendra? "Kendra?" He managed to say. "What about Buffy?"

Xander stared at him. "Who?"

***********

He followed them back to the Master's Lair that ironically enough was situated at the Bronze. Half dazed by the twisted reality he was now experiencing which saw Willow and Xander as vampires, he managed to hold his own in convincing them that he was the Spike they knew, _the_ _one_ (he could not bring himself to say it) who had sired them both. If he had thought the main street of Sunnydale had been bad, what he saw upon entering the Bronze was even worse. Even as he approached it, his senses came alive with the salt of fear. It hung in the air like an aromatic cloud, drawing him into its thrall. He sensed others of his kind and knew that there were many of them. Without understanding how it had happened, Spike accepted that the vampires had taken the night in Sunnydale.

The inside of the Bronze was scattered with cages in which trapped humans waited death for the first hungry vamp that desired a meal. While some of the pool tables were being used for the games, others were being used as feeding areas where vampires were treating the meal of their choice to a more lethal game. There was music but the band playing was clearly terrified and their eyes showed the fact that they were playing for more than just the music but to keep their vampire masters happy in exchange for their continued existence. In the days before he loved the Slayer this might have pleased him. In truth, much of it still did. This was the way they were meant to rule and if he had not changed the way he knew he had, he would be joining them but even now, he felt the familiar ache for Buffy inside of him. He wondered what she would have thought of all this and then felt marginally grateful that she was not because he could not imagine her horror at what had been wrought in her world.

What was worse, he soon discovered that upon meeting Xander and Willow in this warped reality, he found that he could remember turning Willow. Unfamiliar images filled his head and he could actually remember her terrified eyes and her pleas for mercy just before he sunk his fangs into her neck and destroyed all that she could ever be. He remembered the warm spurt of her blood into his mouth and how sweet she tasted. It all lingered inside his head waiting only his desire to remember to surface. While he could remember everything from the world where Buffy had been apart of his life, he could also remember everything to do with this reality. 

And in this reality, she had never been called as the Slayer.

Therefore it meant she was somewhere else, probably Los Angeles living the life of a normal young woman without the burdens of being the Slayer of vampires and demons. He remembered who Kendra was now. She was the Slayer Dru had killed the night Angelus had attempted to awaken Acathala. Kendra had been called when Buffy had been clinically dead for a few minutes during the battle where she had killed the Master. Kendra had resulted from that death and for the first time ever, there had been two Slayers. If Kendra was the Slayer that had come to Sunnydale then it meant Buffy was never called and somewhere in this world, she was still alive. That thought gave Spike a great deal of comfort because he could find her.

Willow and Xander had separated from him once they entered the Bronze and as he swept his gaze through the darkened crevices of the Bronze, he saw them engaged in some heavy petting in one of the shadowy booths. He always knew those two were close but he never suspected they were _that_ close. He wondered if Xander knew that Willow's sexual orientation was not as singular as previously believed. Even Spike had raised a brow on that one but then after almost a hundred fifty years of existence, nothing surprised him anymore.

An arm slid around his shoulder and showed him once again how wrong he was.

"You're all wrong Spikey," a soft voice breathed in his ear.

Spike turned around and found him facing Drusilla. She was staring at him with those all seeing eyes that knew more than just the surface allowed her to see.

"Dru," Spike responded, pleasantly surprised and happy to see her. Their last parting had been anything but amicable and even though he no longer loved her as once he had, she was still a large part of his existence that he could not forget.

Her hand ran over his face and he could feel her cold breath against his skin. "You're not my Spike. You're someone else."

"Don't be silly luv," Spike countered quickly, having no wish to be found out when surrounded by hundreds of their kind who would not hesitate to tear him to pieces if they thought he was not one of them. "Haven't I always taken care of you?" He asked, sliding his arm around her waist and pulled her to him. 

She came to him obligingly because she knew no other way to be around him but she knew something was wrong. "She fills your head Spike," Drusilla said almost sadly. "The one that doesn't exist anymore, she's singing to you even now."

"Doesn't exist anymore?" Spike asked, not understanding. What did she mean? Drusilla was never wrong about such things. As insane as she was, her insight was almost always accurate. He had assumed that Buffy had not been called as Slayer but when he considered how he had come to be in this place he realized that Chronozon had been seeking to avenge himself against the vampire that had betrayed him. Somehow the demon had seen to it that Spike had retained his memories, so that he could remember what he had lost and regret it. Despite the ramifications arising from Buffy never being called to this reality, it still would not stop Spike from finding her. After all, he knew where she had lived before coming to Sunnydale and in this day and age it would be a simple matter of tracing her.

"She's gone Spike, rubbed out like a little mark on a piece of paper. She never was now." Drusilla said in a singsong voice.

"You mean dead?" Spike demanded. "Is that what you're trying to tell me luv, that she's dead?"

"Poor Spike," Drusilla replied sadly, her arms encircling his neck and pulling him close. "She's all gone away and you still can't let her go can you? That's alright my love," she ran a finger over his ear. "I can make you forget her, I can make you mine again."

"I'll bet you could Dru," Spike responded huskily, his fingers caressing her arms gently. "I'll bet we had some good times." 

He stared into her eyes and thought how easy it would be to let himself be lost in them. However coupled with the new memories in his head, he also had memories of Buffy. He remembered the love for him she could not express even though it burned in her touch when they had come together. When he told her the night after their passionate exchange that she did not love him yet, he honestly believed that in time once she overcome her anxieties of about caring for someone like him that she would feel the same. Now it appeared that would never happen because she did not exist in this reality. 

"We could have those times again Spike," Dru said trying to convince him.

"No luv," he shook his head. "We're done." With that he pulled her arms from his neck and broke free of her. 

"Spike, you won't find her." Drusilla called out as he pushed his way through the bodies in the Bronze, both living and dead. "You made her undone."

Spike did not understand what Drusilla meant by that but he knew he had to get out of here. If he stayed any longer he might become lost in the thrill of the hunt with others of his kind, where he was no longer despised but feared as William the Bloody and Buffy would remain lost to him forever. That alone made him walk a lot faster. The chip was gone from his head but his love for Buffy was still in his heart and he could not let her go. Drusilla was right about that. 

Spike pushed his way out of the Bronze until he had emerged into the night sky once more. The fresh air felt good in his lungs and he took several deep breaths of it to steady himself, hoping that perhaps clarity of vision might chase away this nightmare he had woken up into. He started walking because it was only a matter time before someone discovered that he was not the Spike they remembered if Drusilla did not give him away first. She might love him but that did not change the fact that she was as mad as Hatter and was more than capable of blurting out the truth at the most inconvenient times. 

Besides, with everything else that had gone wrong today, Spike had no desire to face the Master who would be less than impressed to know that one of his own had fallen under the spell of the slayer. Unintentionally, Spike found himself at the house that he remembered as being the Slayer's home. The tree behind which he had stood on many a night and looked into her room was still there thankfully, for all the good it did him.

The house that was home to the slayer was gutted by fire. Boards were placed on the windows and the look of dilapidation had well and truly sunk into the place. It was obvious no one had inhabited it for quite some time. Spike stood under the tree for a long time, taking a smoke as he often did beneath that tree trying to decide what to do. Drusilla said that Buffy never existed in this reality. What had Dru meant when she said that he had made Buffy undone? What the bloody hell sense was that supposed to make? How could he be responsible for Buffy being gone other than inspiring Chronozon's hatred? He stood there in the darkness, contemplating how it might be possible that he was responsible for Buffy's non-existence by shifting through the new memories in his mind. It was difficult to make out.

He remembered killing Kendra, watching her life drain out of her eyes as he defeated her in battle and then draining the life from her. He recalled joining the Master once he had returned from his exile beneath the Hellmouth, taking his place as one of the Master's brightest, right along with Drusilla and Darla. _Darla_? She still lived apparently because Angel had never been forced to choose between her and Buffy. Spike could not recall what exactly had happened to the vampire with a soul but he was certain there was something in his new memories about good ol' peaches. The further he went back into the past, the more things settled into the memories he knew from his own reality, his arrival in Sunnydale with Drusilla and the wanderings across Europe for the better part of fifty years following the loss of Angelus. Those memories were identical to what he knew of his life in his own reality. 

Suddenly, a new memory surfaced that bore little resemblance to what he remembered to the past he had lived. He had accepted that certain things were different. What Sunnydale had become was proof of that but it made no sense that the distant past should have been altered by his arrival in this reality. Spike knew that taking Buffy away from him was Chronozon's revenge but he could not understand what it had to do with this new memory that had taken place more than a century after she was born. He closed his eyes and allowed the vivid imagery to unfold, mesmerized by the memories he knew he had never experienced before....

*********

__

Angelus told him to stay put that night but he could not help himself. 

They were supposed to keep a low profile. After all, they had done Europe from one end of the continent to the other and Angelus was bored. He wanted something different. Some place where the feeding was good and their kind was not known. Darla had suggested America. They came aboard a schooner, leaving it drained of life by the time they disembarked at New York. America was a place of chaos with migrants coming from the Old World by the boatload, most were confused and disorientated by the vastness of their new home. They were a feast for a vampire's delight.

They stayed in New York for months, draining so many that it became impossible for authorities to ignore and soon there was danger in remaining. Angelus wanted to travel to California and Darla was more than happy to accommodate him. Drusilla as always wished to stay close to her 'daddy' as she called Angelus but there was nothing paternal about their relationship, Spike thought bitterly. Still his black princess never ceased to remind him whom it was that she really loved even when her loyalties were divided. They traveled across America, unable to deny the beauty of the New World while partaking in sinful pleasures in the bodies they fed upon and with each other. It was a splendid time to be alive.

Then they paused at a small town in New Mexico, a little place with nothing much to recommend it other than the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere and it seemed like a good place for a little bit of amusement. Of course, the danger for vampires in a small town was how quickly they could be exposed so Angelus had instructed them to select their prey carefully. The town had lawmen, seven of them who were quite formidable and Angelus had taken a liking to the local newspaper editor with the golden hair. He had been planning on playing his games with her, the kind Spike had no patience for and Darla often indulged him because in the end it was she he always returned to. 

Spike had every intention of doing the same but laying low was never his best attribute and he found himself pitted against a smooth talking gambler who had taken all his money and oozed arrogance doing it. Spike had barely considered the ramifications when he waylaid the man later that night and tore out his throat, he did not expect the ruthless determination in which his six companions would seek to avenge his death. The family had barely escaped the town alive and Angelus had almost killed him for ruining his chances with the pretty widow.

As for the man, Spike had barely remembered his name, although he did know it.

It was Standish, Ezra Standish.

**********

A scream tore through his consciousness and snapped him out of his reverie. 

Shaking the memories out of his head, Spike instinctively followed the scent of fear that had been produced by that frightened cry and dashed across the street towards the shadowy space between two dilapidated houses. It was instinct that drew him there even though he was hardly in the most heroic frame of mind. However, patrolling with Buffy and being the outcast member of the Scooby gang for the last two years had left its mark upon him to his utmost chagrin just as being unable to ignore a cry for help was part and parcel of loving a Slayer. It did not even occur to Spike that saving a human from one of his kind could earn him an unimaginable death if the Master were to get his hands on him. Not until he arrived in the alley and saw the young woman trying to fight off the trio of vampires that were descending upon her like a pack of wolves. 

He paused a moment, reveling in the smell of her fear and the blood that was rushing wildly through her veins. He imagined how she would taste and for an instant, he almost joined his undead brethren in the feeding to come. Without the chip, he could do that and since Buffy did not exist, he was perfectly justified in doing so. However, he also realised that in her absence, he was all that was left of Buffy in this world. She lived inside him and warmed his cold lifeless heart and if he let this poor woman die, it would make her mark upon him worthless and Spike could not bear that. 

"Hello lads," Spike spoke up as he swaggered brashly through them, making his way towards the young woman who was quivering in fear "Looks like you got a tasty bit of fun here."

"She's ours Spike," one of them said boldly but he could tell the others were newborns and the prospect of going head to head with a Master Vampire like him was rather daunting. 

"Go find someone else," Spike said confidently, certain that he could take care of this without throwing a punch. He knew how to judge the enemy and right now the enemy was not looking that impressive. He reached for her and brushed the lock of hair out of her face. She pulled away from his touch, sniffling uncontrollably because she knew she was caught and escape now was impossible. She did not notice the startled expression on his face.

"No way..." one of the vampires started to say.

"NOW!" Spike roared as his human mask felt away and revealed demon savagery.

It was more than enough to force the others into withdrawal. They knew who he was and he was the Master's brightest. He was William the Bloody and he had killed three slayers. There was no contest. They left rather abruptly. Spike waited until he could scent them no more before he faced the young woman again, this time his demon visage had evaporated revealing his human face.

"Tara?" Spike asked. "Its you isn't it luv? You're the witch. Look its alright, I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to talk."

She stared at him astonished, all traces of her previous fear gone completely. She was almost composed. "How...how... do you know my name?" She stammered.

"I just do," Spike sighed wondering why he had expected her to remember him as any more than one of the vampires that had been terrorizing Sunnydale. "I don't expect you to bloody well understand. I can't wrap my head around it either but its seems I'm stuck in this nightmare until I work out how to fix things."

"I don't understand," Tara looked at him, fear dissolving into puzzlement. "You saved me."

"Well look who decided to join the conversation," he rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Yeah I saved you. I thought we established this already."

"But you're Spike." She pointed out.

"I'm glad you here to tell me these things luv, otherwise I'd be in awful bloody state wouldn't I?" He said impatiently. It was not her fault that she did not know him, he sighed. To her, he was the enemy and she would never be able to see him as anything else. Exhaling deeply, he turned to her and remarked. "It's not safe for you to be out in the dark when so many of us are running around. I'd best walk you home. Make sure you get there in one piece."

"Are you for real?" She exclaimed.

Spike shook his head and retorted with annoyance, "If I was going to bite you, I'd a done it already and to tell you the truth, there wouldn't be much you could do about it."

"I wouldn't say that," someone said behind Spike.

"I figured you'd turn up sooner or later," Spike turned around and faced Angel. "Let me guess, you don't know who Buffy is either?"

"Buffy?" The vampire Angel stared at him in confusion. "Is that your new girlfriend?"

Spike snorted and strode up to the vampire that was his grandsire, the vampire with a soul whom had captured Buffy's heart long before he came along and as much as Spike hated to admit, might still have it. 

"No you bleeding pillock!" He growled. "She's the woman that _we_ both love! Or at least I do since you don't seem to remember bugger all about her. She was the Slayer!" He knew that no one understood a thing he was saying but Spike did not care. He felt the sudden need to vent. "I swear if I die in this place I am going to hell to tear Chronozon a new one!" 

Tara and Angel looked at each other in confusion, wondering if William the Bloody had lost his mind.

"Is that Spike?" Giles emerged from the shadows.

"It looks like him," Angel started to say. 

"Giles?" Spike whirled around at the first sign of hope he had encountered since being thrust into this warped universe. "Watcher?" 

Giles stared at the vampire known as William the Bloody and was puzzled at why he was being smiled at with such familiarity. "How do you know I was a watcher? I've told no one that."

"That's your business," Spike shrugged, not caring about Giles' bewilderment but whether or not the watcher could help him. "Right now, you need to help me."

"Help you?" Angel stared at him in derision. "You got to be kidding."

"Listen to me you stupid bastard," Spike glared at him. "The only woman that you or I has ever loved is gone because some demon decided to take his revenge on me by wiping her out of existence. Everything in this bright and cheery vampire paradise is because she never was. So if you couldn't care less about helping me, then think about helping yourselves. Trust me, the world is a hell of a lot more pleasant with her in it."

"You keep saying her, who do you mean?" Giles inquired.

"We shouldn't be having this conversation out here in the open," Angel interrupted before Spike could speak His gaze swept his gaze in the surrounding area. "We should get indoors."

"Good idea," Spike agreed and flinched at the notion that he and Angel had agreed on anything. 

God, he going to make Chronozon pay for this.

**********

Within the confines of the church that acted as the headquarters for Giles and his group, Spike endured the chains that were tied around him in order to gain the watcher's help in restoring reality to what it once was and more importantly, restoring Buffy back to him. It appeared that Giles, Tara and Angel were part of an underground resistance movement determined to eradicate the vampire menace from Sunnydale. However, judging by their surroundings and by their numbers, it seemed that they were facing an uphill battle. Once again, there were familiar faces around him. For instance, the cheerleader who used to date the whelp, Cordelia, if he remembered correctly was also present. 

"He saved you?" Cordelia stared at Tara in disbelief as they stood around Spike who was firmly secured to the chair, studying him like he was a carnival curiosity.

"Yes," Tara nodded. "He kept babbling about someone named Buffy. I don't think he's right in the head."

"As opposed to what?" Angel retorted as he came up along side Cordelia and wrapped an arm around her waist in a clearly intimate gesture.

Spike's brow shot up at that and wondered if Angel had any idea what would happen if he and Cordelia became any more familiar with each other then they already were. The demon in him decided to remain silent about that little feature of the Angel Curse. Besides, he had larger concerns to worry about at this time. "You're the one to talk," Spike glared at Angel. "There was a time when you'd be snacking on this group instead of helping them."

"Angel is not like you," Cordelia returned defensively, proving that she was not as secure about Angel's noble nature as she might like to believe.

"Whatever," Spike shrugged not about to get into a sparring match with a cheerleader. "Listen Watcher, you need to help me out here. You help me out and this little paradise of yours changes back to the way it was and trust me, it's for the better, for you lot anyway."

Giles was pouring over his ancient books, having been given the name of Chronozon earlier when Spike had agreed to be chained up. The watcher raised his eyes above the rim of his glasses and remarked, "well the demon Chronozon does exist although he is mostly a disembodied force. His powers however are considerable."

"You don't actually believe him do you?" Angel stared at Giles in disbelief as he stood over Spike, preparing to act if he gave Angel the slightest bit trouble. He did not trust Spike. His demon half may have had a lengthy history with the younger vampire but his human side knew him for the bloodthirsty creature that he was.

"Oy!" Spike barked. "Stick your nose out of this Peaches. Why don't you take the cheerleader out the back and show her what a real man you are, I'll wager it will bring out a whole new side of you."

"SHUT UP!" Angel swore, striking Spike across the jaw.

"That's enough the both of you," Giles ordered sharply. "Angel, I wish to hear him out."

Angel glowered and Spike flexed his lower jaw, shaking the sting of the older vampire's punch from his bruised mouth. 

"You heard him," Spike couldn't resist adding. "Now sod off for awhile."

"Spike," Giles turned to him with just as much venom. "My patience isn't infinite. Get on with it. You said that Chronozon is involved. How?"

"I told you," Spike hissed with anger, "he made Buffy disappear. She was the Slayer."

"Kendra was the Slayer," Angel said in a low voice. "You killed her."

"I'm not going to quibble with you all right?" Spike glanced briefly at Angel before facing Giles again. "The last thing I remember before waking up in this crazy place was helping Buffy fight Chronozon. He was royally pissed that I was helping the Slayer instead of keeping up the old guard you know and after I'd done his host in, he was forced to go back to hell but not before claiming he was going to take his revenge. I'm assuming this is it."

"And his revenge was what?" Giles looked at him skeptically. "Send you to a world that is ruled by vampires? Hardly a fitting revenge, if a revenge at all."

"His revenge was Buffy!" Spike snapped. "He knew I loved her! He knew that I'd turned my back on the life because of her and that's how he was going to get his revenge by making her gone!"

"You fell in love with a slayer?" Angel snorted. The irony of it was too much for him. 

"Don't laugh so hard mate," Spike returned sarcastically. "I wasn't the only one. You're one broody grim bastard with poofter hair because of her."

"You're telling me, the absence of _one_ Slayer did all this?" Giles asked Spike, unable to believe the absence of one girl could alter the course of events so dramatically.

"She wasn't just one slayer as you put it," Spike replied. "She was _your_ Slayer. She killed the Master long before he had a chance to turn Sunnydale into a community buffet."

"I was never given the privilege of being the Watcher to a slayer," Giles responded turning away. "Kendra was not mine to watch or guide."

"Buffy was," Spike responded, letting his mind drift away for a second as he remembered Buffy and all the things that she was, unaware that he was speaking his thoughts out loud. "She was beautiful and strong. She'd bleed herself dry if it meant she could save the world. She was the best Slayer I'd ever come up against, never could kill her though. You don't kill someone like Buffy, you just stay by her side and try to be there for her. Sometimes you even hope that you can take away some of that weight from her shoulders because no one _that_ young should have to face all that she has to and have be alone as well. I love her. I would have died for her a thousand times over if I had to."

"You do have it bad," Tara stated.

Spike bristled immediately, feeling stupid that he had exposed his feelings like a schoolchild in front of all these strangers. However, he had to prove to them that he truly cared about Buffy because without their help, he had no way to get her back.

"Well," Spike shrugged. "I'm love's bitch and I'm not afraid to admit it."

"Charmingly put," Giles frowned and then added. "However against my judgement, I tend to believe you and if there's a chance that one girl can change this hell we've been living in since the Master arrived, then I have to take it. We've got to get Buffy back."


	3. Chapter 2

****

Part Two

The Wild, Wild West

__

I'm gonna kill Chronozon when I get my hands on the bleeding bastard! 

This and many similar thoughts of murder and mayhem filled Spike's thoughts as he found himself in the unsavory position of having to trust Giles and Angel to find a way out of this crazy reality he was now trapped. Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, the one he had been tied to the last few hours, he felt his limbs ache from their confinement and came to the conclusion that he did not dislike them as much as he disliked himself at this moment. Why was he enduring this humiliation, tied to a chair like some kind of animal, with the cheerleader and the witch armed with crossbows, ready to shoot him at the slightest show of danger? There was no chip in his head so he could happily kill all of them, starting with Peaches. For so long he wanted the damn thing to be gone and now that it was, what was he doing? He was consorting with the enemy in order to get it back! He should have been reveling in the freedom of this reality where vampires ruled the night; instead he was unable to stomach any of it because Buffy did not exist. 

There was no end to Fate's cruelty, Spike decided.

Still when he looked at the cheerleader, at Cordelia, he saw that in this reality she was much changed. Sure, she was never very smart, the beautiful ones seldom were, except for Buffy - of course but in that instance he was somewhat biased. Yet as he studied Cordelia now, there was hardness in her eyes and a grim determination that did resemble Buffy to some degree. She had seen a lot. In the other world, she had been a flighty thing with nary a thought in her head that did not believe that she was the center of the known universe. However, there was none of that here. Even Tara who was as sweet and unassuming as they come, seemed to have that same steel in her eyes but Spike supposed that in this place, that kind of nerve was needed for survival.

"Hey Cheerleader," Spike called out, curious as to what had turned a party girl like Cordelia into a vampire hunter. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be more concerned about becoming prom queen or the next 'it' girl."

Cordelia glared at him. "That's none of your business."

"Oh come on," Spike urged. "I'm interested, really."

"Shut up Spike," Tara ordered, glancing anxiously at Cordelia whose eyes had suddenly softened with something Spike recognized immediately as terrible sadness.

"I was just asking," Spike returned, his voice no longer taunting but somewhat gentle. "I'm just surprised to see you with Peaches that's all. I thought you'd be with the whelp."

"The whelp?" She knotted her brow in confusion.

"Xanderrrr." Spike replied in his best American accent.

"Xander's dead." Cordelia returned. "Or might as well be."

With that she lowered her crossbow and walked away from Tara and Spike, unable to face either as emotions she could not bear to have them see surfaced within her. Spike watched her go, feeling a little sorry for hurting her on such a personal level. He did not mind the odd taunts that annoyed but he did not relish pain that cut to the heart because he knew all too well how that felt from the thoughtlessness of others. He also understood now what had driven Cordelia to Angel and to this group of vampire hunters; Xander's turning. It also made sense that upon being turned, Willow would seek out Xander first. They were after all best friends for most of their lives and now it appeared they would be soulmates through eternity as well. It had to hurt Cordelia a great deal.

"I'm sorry," Spike apologised but she did not hear.

"You're such a jerk," Tara frowned, looking worriedly after Cordelia.

"Were you and Red an item too?" Spike asked.

"Red?" Tara stared at him in confusion.

"Willow," Spike retorted impatiently. "Were you and Willow together?'

"The vampire Willow?" Tara's face evaporated in shock.

"I'm guessing that's a no." Spike deduced by her astonished expression. "So when did Peaches enter the picture?"

"Why do you keep calling him that?" Tara asked wondering what other curve balls Spike was going to throw at him.

"It's an old joke," he replied with a little smile. "Wwhat's the story with him?"

"He came here to stop you and Drusilla from awakening the demon Acathala," Tara spoke and then recanted. "The other you."

"I decided to wake Acathala?" Spike shook his head in disbelief. "Manchester United must have lost the Cup or the bloody Aussies have won the damn cricket again, can't think of any other reason to be that depressed to want to end the world."

"You killed the slayer that night." Tara declared, as if defying him to remember. "You killed Kendra but Angel stopped Acathala. When it was all over, he stayed here to help us with the Master."

Spike remembered. He knew how things had gone in his reality but he also remembered the way it had transpired in this one. The Master had been furious at him and Drusilla for almost ending the vampire paradise he had created for himself and only his fondness for them had kept him from killing them both. He remembered fighting Kendra and how he had taken her life and his third slayer. It had been an exhilarating experience and one that worthy of the keeping. However, he knew that it was false. It was a phantom created by Chronozon to torture him with Buffy's non-existence and once again he wished he could have killed more than just the demon's host.

Spike was about to comment when Giles and Angel returned, obviously having conferred about the legitimacy of Spike's claim. Angel would be the skeptic, Spike decided, even with a soul Peaches knew what he was and how dangerous he could be. Spike just hoped he did not manage to convince Giles the same. At this moment, the watcher was the only person alive who might be able to help him return to the world he knew and Spike could not afford to alienate him. Giles gave him a hard stare as he approached, as if trying to discern whether or not Spike's words were genuine or was this some trick to end the threat of the vampire hunters.

"Tell us everything that's happened to you since you emerged in this reality." Giles spoke upon reaching him. Angel was glaring at him with stake in hand and Spike knew that the vampire with a soul would stake him at a moment's notice if he so much as breathed wrong.

Spike let out a deep breath, aware that it was necessary even though he had no wish to relive the whole sorry tale of how he had come to be here. He omitted a few facts however, like Chronozon's cruel taunts about Buffy not loving him. They did not need to have that much detail. Giles listened closely while Angel seemed to take his words with a grain of salt and the two vampires spent much of the narration glaring at each other. When it was done, no one was more grateful than Spike He did not much care for justifying his reasons for wanting Buffy back and having to do it to people he did not think too highly off was even worse.

"How extraordinary," Giles said after a moment of silence following the conclusion of Spike's tale.

"I'm glad you think so," Spike returned sarcastically. "Can you help me or not?" He asked impatiently.

"I don't think its that simple," Giles retorted with a frown. "The spell that Chronozon used could be any number of things, attempting to break it would be extremely difficult."

"I'm kind of curious to know why every memory of your past before coming to Sunnydale is identical except the time in the old west." Angel added, showing that he was listening and giving some measure of credence to Spike's story even if he did not want to trust his former minion.

"I wondered about that," Spike nodded in agreement. "Everything else is the same except that. What I remember is that we never came to America, until the next century. Darla liked the high life in Europe, at least until you got your soul back and then we went our separate ways. I think she came to Sunnydale before any of us to join the Master while me and Dru stayed in Europe."

"I remember," Angel said quietly, trying not to think too much of his demon's feelings for Darla and how a part of him would always be attracted to her. Cordelia shifted uncomfortably as if she knew what he was thinking and was not happy about it.

"You killed someone there you said?" Giles looked at him.

"Yeah some gambler named Standish," Spike responded and something about that bothered him a great deal. "I remember that I did it but I can't for the life of me remember why. Most of them time I couldn't care less about killing anyone over bleeding poker. That's a mug's game if you ask me, killing someone just because you couldn't win fair and square. I'm no welcher."

Giles pondered the question for a moment before he found himself glancing at Spike again. "What do you know about Buffy's family?"

"Her family?" Spike's brow shot up in confusion. "She had a mum and a little sister, the niblet but there's a long story behind how that come to be and I'm not in the mood for telling it. Her mum was a nice lady though, use to make me hot chocolate with marshmallows in it. Joyce would listened to me prattle on like a git about Dru after she left me, like she really cared you know? I was sorry when she died."

He looked up to see the others staring at him.

"Marshmallows?" Angel snorted.

"Sod off." Spike growled and felt intensely annoyed by the snigger that came from Angel at his chagrin.

"Could we get back to the subject?" Giles frowned, lowering himself at the nearby desk in front of a thin laptop. "What was her mother's name?"

"Joyce," Spike retorted. "Like I said."

"I mean her maiden name." Giles hissed.

"Oh," he replied quietly, searching his mind for the answer and remembering that Joyce had told him once. When the answer came to him, his eyes flared open and for a second his heart turned even colder in his chest. "Bloody hell," his voice escaped him in a strangled whisper. "It was Standish. Her maiden name was Standish."

"Just as I thought," Giles thought as his fingers flew across the keyboard and he found the information that he was looking for. "There is a record of a Hank Summers but not of a Joyce Standish."

"THAT SON OF A BITCH!" Spike growled, his face turning into a vampire with such rage that the ropes binding him snapped free when he stood up, wanting to kill something, anything. "THE FUCKING BASTARD!"

Cordelia and Tara started to raise their crossbows but Angel shook his head, believing there was no danger because he had seen the realization sink into the younger vampire's face and it was the horror of what he had done had inspired this bout of fury. 

"I KNEW IT!" Spike ranted, feeling such an unbelievable surge of rage that he could barely contain it. He should have known that there was more to Chronozon's revenge than simply taking his Slayer away from him. He wanted Spike to suffer, to know that he was the one responsible for her absence because it was he who had killed her ancestor, thus negating her entire existence. "He made me the one to destroy her! I'll kill the bastard! Hey Peaches you can stake me now! I'm going to hell to tear that fucking demon apart!"

"Sure," Angel started to take a step towards the ranting vampire with a stake in his hand.

"Steady on!" Spike glared at him. "I was raving!"

"You expected to just let that lie there?" Angel smiled.

"So we now we know what's happened," Giles returned to the small group. "You caused the death of Buffy's ancestor that had altered the timeline."

"I guess so," Spike hissed, still seething in fury. His features shifted back to his human face but he was still furious. "The question is what can I do about it? Unless one of you have a HG Wells time machine so I can go back and stop myself from doing it, we're screwed."

"No, nothing like that, unfortunately," Giles answered. Despite Spike's crude description of their situation, Giles had to admit he was right, there might not be anything they could do to change things back. "I don't know if there's anything that can be done."

"I refuse to believe that," Spike said in a perfectly sober voice. "I won't let her end this way. If she is to die, she deserves a slayer's death. She shouldn't end like this without even being given a chance to face her killer."

"You're her killer." Cordelia pointed.

"Thank you for pointing that out," Spike threw a dark look in her direction and then said to Angel, "you always liked the dumb ones."

"There's a spell," Tara who had been silent all this time announced, silencing Angel before he had a chance to defend Cordelia's IQ and capturing their undivided attention.

"A spell?" Giles looked at the young woman. He was aware that she dabbled with magic on occasion. Tara never spoke about such episodes but the proof of her ability was considerable even if Giles never considered she might have the power to conjure a spell as complex as the one she was proposing. It worried him that she would try it and yet he could not imagine any other way that they might undo what the demon Chronozon had wrought by his vengeance on Spike. 

"Yes," Tara nodded shyly, hating it when everyone's attention was her. Spike was staring at her with hope as if he believed she could do it or needed to anyway. "There is spell that could send Spike back to the West, to the town where he killed Buffy's ancestor. If he could stop what he did back there, it might return things to normal again."

"Is it dangerous?" Cordelia asked, concerned not for Spike but rather for Tara. Since the Master's return from exile, Cordelia had seen those she loved die one after the other. First Willow, Xander, Harmony and so many others she could no longer count. When she had joined Giles to fight the vampires, Tara had become her friend and in this world where so much was uncertain and death was a constant, Cordelia strove to keep the few friends she had in her life. "I mean could you get hurt?"

"I don't think so," Tara answered. "But it is a difficult spell and he'll still have to be brought back. I would have to go with him."

"No!" Angel and Spike said simultaneously.

"There's no way!" Cordelia added.

"I'll go with her." Giles stated.

"Oh this is bloody great!" Spike retorted. "Not only am I going to have to stop _myself_ from killing this Standish bloke, I also have to do it while protecting you two?"

"It won't work any other way," Tara stated. "Do you want Buffy back or not?" 

That stopped any further protestations but Spike was not happy about it. He did not reveal that it was not just his past self he would have to deal with but also Angelus, Darla and Drusilla who would undoubtedly be accompanying him. How was he going to deal with three vampires on his own?

"Giles," Angel spoke up. "This is dangerous. You're needed here."

"I know," Giles swallowed, not about to hide the fact that he was worried about his life and the world he would be leaving behind. "However, if this works, there will be no Master and," he paused and gave Spike a glimpse. "I am her watcher."

"You don't know that for sure." Angel returned.

"No I don't," Giles sucked in his breath. "But I have to believe that there's something out there better than this."

"Trust me," Spike returned. "There is."

Giles stared and him and retorted, "don't take this personally Spike but it doesn't comfort me knowing that coming from you."

***********

"I should be going with you," Angel said to Giles as he saw Tara finishing her preparations for the time travel spell.

"No you can't," Giles shook his head even before Angel could complete the sentence. "You need to stay because if we fail and we're trapped there for any reason, you will have to continue the fight without us."

"Don't say that," Angel responded, a stricken expression on his face. They had been through so much together over the years that the thought of losing the thoughtful and brave librarian was more than Angel could stand. He had learnt a great deal from Giles, more than he had learnt in almost two hundred years of existence and could easily say that he had been influenced greatly by the association. "Of course, you'll come back."

"I'm sure I will," Giles was not about to repudiate that statement, wondering of Angel had fully considered the consequences of what would happen if they were indeed successful. This entire timeline would cease to be. Their friendship, his love for Cordelia and everything he had become since coming to Sunnydale would also disappear. There was also the possibility that Spike was lying to them and if he was, it would be best if one of them was on hand to discover what his intentions was. However, inwardly, Giles did not believe that Spike was lying and if he was not, then there was a chance to restore the timeline and erase this terrible world from ever coming into being.

"But it is also wise to take precautions." He added, hoping that would make it easier for Angel to accept.

Angel nodded begrudgingly, aware that Giles words had been spoken to appease him and was no reassurance in itself. However, Giles was correct, an existence where the Master was not the lord over a kingdom of vampires was too good to risk slipping by. They had one chance at it and Giles had to take it for all their sakes. 

"We're ready," Tara called out once she and Cordelia were done with the preparations. "We should begin."

Giles swallowed thickly, unable to deny his apprehension and noted that Spike had already stepped into the circle that Tara had created. The vampire's face revealed no sign of fear, just an eagerness to begin and at that moment, Giles could well believe that he had lost his heart to a slayer and was desperate to get her back at any costs. The irony of it seemed straight out of a Shakespearean tragedy. 

"Alright then," Giles speaking with a confidence he did not feel. "Let's get on with it."

************

****

FOUR CORNERS – The Standish Saloon

Inez Recillos watched the proceedings with a sigh, wishing that her employer's son would finish his game and leave. She wanted to close up for the night but it was extremely bad manners to do so when her last customers of the night were engaged in a rather intense game of poker. A few others had remained to watch the proceedings with her but the majority of the tavern's clientele had staggered home for the evening. It was not as if she was unaccustomed to late nights herself but there was something odd about the opponent that Ezra Standish was playing. The manner in which he stared across the table at Ezra was unnerving, even to one who was watching it from a distance away. She wondered how Ezra could stand it.

"How much longer do you think he's gonna last?" Vin Tanner, one of the peacekeepers in the town of Four Corners, inquired of Inez as he looked over his shoulder from the counter.

"Knowing Ezra," Chris Larabee shrugged. "Who knows? Although it looks like the Englishman might give him a run for his money."

"Not a chance," Inez said confidently, "Ezra plays to win and if thought he'd lose he would not be taking this all the way."

Neither man chose to question the lady since she was had been privy to Ezra's all night sessions more than they were lately. Since becoming the manager of the Standish Tavern, Inez had plenty of opportunity to observe the gambler in action and if there was one thing that either Chris or Vin was not about to refute, it was a woman's intuition.

Ezra Standish had no difficulty playing under the intense gaze of his opponent. As a professional gambler, he had learnt to become indifferent to scowls and daggers thrown in his direction during a game and distraction, like skill was all a part of the play. He could not deny that he enjoyed playing cards with the Englishman called William Marsden, although he had a great deal of difficulty reading him as easily as he did previous opponents. There was something in the eyes that seemed predatory and a great deal like Chris Larabee's but it was hard to equate anything so dark with the pale young man in his eastern clothes and his refined accent. 

William and his companions had arrived in town less than a week ago and had caused a stir of gossip throughout the community from the moment they arrived. Ezra himself had to admit he was curious while Chris merely took a cautious view of them as he would with any strangers. William's companions, a rather ethereal beauty named Drusilla was absent tonight but when they were together, mostly in the evenings, they were inseparable. It was thought that they were rich aristocrats from abroad, living the high life with behavior that seemed very much the stock of the indolent rich. With William and his lady were another couple, a dark broody Irishman who gave Chris a run for his money in the tall, dark and mysterious department and an incredibly gorgeous golden haired beauty that had Buck Wilmington salivating at the sight of her.

They seemed pleasant enough, carousing to all hours of the night which explained why they slept half the day away and only seemed to emerged when the sun had dipped into the horizon. They enjoyed doing the rounds of the saloons in Four Corners and there were trips to Eagle Bend and Bitter Creek where they apparently soaked in the local color there. After a few days, the novelty of their presence seemed to fade and Chris had muttered something about them probably being on their way when they were got bored with things around here. On this occasion, the older couple had gone to watch a troop of actors performing in Bitter Creek. Josiah Sanchez had taken Buck Wilmington and JD Dunne with him to watch the same show. Ezra had no taste for watching Marlowe being performed badly so he had opted to remain in town choosing to spend the night at the tables.

He was surprised when William joined the table where he was holding court with a number of local opponents.. Ezra supposed those who traveled the continent with nothing to do but enjoying the delights of high society would be familiar with the game and the chance to play with a capable opponent was welcomed. That was almost four hours ago and since then the process of fiscal elimination had chased off the others at the table and after William's lady friend had retired for the night, it was just the two of them. He had to confess he had not engaged in such a challenging game for quite some time and he enjoyed every second of it. However, a quick glance at Inez's directions told him that the lady was waiting for them to finish and he took pity on her by deciding that it was time to make a play where winner would take all. William had not shirked from this prospect and even seemed pleased at the risk. His full lips curling into a little smile when Ezra made the suggestion.

"I must commend your skill Mr. Marsden," Ezra remarked.

"Spike." He said shortly.

"Spike?" Ezra raised his brow over the edge of his cards. "As in railroad?"

A little smile crossed William's face, as if he was enjoying some tremendous joke that Ezra was not privy to. "Something like that."

"As I was saying 'Spike", I have enjoyed this game. In my line of work, its unusual for me to come across a worthy opponent but I must say you've been one of the most challenging in a while." Ezra responded. "However, I am tired and I think its time to draw the night to a close."

"You have some unfinished business," William the Bloody pointed out, sitting up straight in his chair. "You can't leave the table unless you finish the game." 

"I'm afraid I can," Ezra smiled sweetly and laid down his cards, revealing a perfect Royal Flush. "And I don't intent to leave empty handed." 

William's eyes flashed in anger and outrage, a thousand different emotions surfaces and disappeared from his eyes in a fraction of a second. His jaw tightened as if he had not anticipated losing and did not at all like it. He raised his eyes to Ezra and the gambler was somewhat taken back by the fury he saw there. For a second, Ezra thought he might attack and braced himself for a fight but then the expression faded away from his opponent's face and William leaned back into his chair, letting his cards fall onto the table in a gesture of concession.

"Well played," he commended. "I didn't see it coming at all."

"Its what I do," Ezra returned smoothly, unable to forget that look in William's eyes and was now on guard for trouble. He hoped it would not turn ugly especially when he looked forward to playing the young man again. "You did however, remind me how important it is to keep one's skill sharply honed. It could have gone the other way."

"I'm sure it could," William said politely and rose to his feet. "I think I shall call it a night. Congratulations on your win," his voice was almost mischievous.

Ezra began to wonder what the man found so amusing. He would have asked but he was more grateful that William had chosen to lose gratefully and not have the evening end with violence so he refrained from asking. "Thank you and I hope we will do this again."

"We will play again," William smiled as he turned away. "You can be assured of that."

Ezra watched him go, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as he left. His instincts screamed caution at him but for the life of him he could not understand why. William Marsden did not look particularly threatening but Ezra still felt something cold had run down his spine at the mention of the man's last remark. Once he had gone, Ezra went back to the business of collecting his money from the table, unable to shake that uneasy feeling that had been engendered by the Englishman.

"You haven't lost your touch," Vin remarked as he approached the gambler at his table.

"I was unaware that that was ever in doubt," Ezra retorted.

"I don't know," Chris teased. "It looked pretty close for awhile there."

"To the amateur, perhaps." Ezra gave them both a confident smirk. "However, I always had things in hand."

"Sure you did," Chris said skeptically and downed the contents of his glass. "That's it," the gunslinger announced after he had finished drinking. "I'm done for the night. I'm going back to my shack."

"Me too," Vin yawned. "What about you Ez? Gonna try and scare up another sucker?"

"Not here he's not," Inez declared as she cleared a table near them. "I'm closing up for the night. I need my beauty sleep."

"You are far too lovely to ever require repose to upkeep your loveliness," Ezra smirked.

"Christ," Vin rolled his eyes.

"Someone had to speak for Buck," Ezra grinned as Inez shook her head in resignation that she was washing her hands of all of them.

"And we thank you for it," Chris drawled. "Come on, let's give Inez a break and get out of here."

"Thank you Senor," the sultry Mexican barmaid said with a grateful smile. 

"I suppose I ought to take my winnings and retire for the evening," Ezra declared at the three men walked towards the bat wing doors. "I take it you are going to crawl into that wagon of yours?"

"Sure thing," Vin nodded. "It's got everything I need."

"I seriously doubt that," Ezra replied, unable to imagine how the tracker could get any sleep in that uncomfortable wagon. Just thinking about spending the night in such surroundings made him grateful for the featherbed that he would soon be slumbering upon. 

"You're too soft for your own good," Vin retorted.

"I like to think of it being polished," the gambler grinned.

"Far be it for me to leave while you are guys are having this intellectual discussion but I'm heading home before my hangover hits. You want to be in bed for something like that. See you tomorrow," Chris replied and headed towards the livery where his horse was stabled. "

"I'll see you tomorrow too Ez," Vin bade the gambler tonight and disappeared into the darkened street where his wagon was situated.

Ezra watched him go for a second wondering how anyone could spend the night like that when hotels and lodging houses were in such close proximity. However, such eccentricities seemed absolutely normal when they were discussing Vin Tanner. The tracker liked the open spaces and the trappings of rustic living. He supposed his own choices would seem just as bizarre to the tracker and decided that God loved variety in all its forms and he and the six men he rode with were more or less proof of that. They made a curious bunch but somehow it worked and he considered them the first real friends he had ever had in his life especially because of those differences.

He continued down the darkened boardwalk towards his room at the lodging house and found himself looking forward to some sleep. It had been a long day with he and Buck escorting a prisoner to Eagle Bend and getting back a little before dark. Hopefully, tomorrow would be a somewhat restful day because he could stand to spend the bulk of it in front of the jailhouse instead of traipsing across the country side dealing with outlaws and God only knew what mischief that seemed to take place in the Territory alone. He rounded a corner and almost collided with William Marsden who appeared to have been waiting for him.

"Marsden," Ezra sighed, realizing now that his earlier hope of things remaining civilized was just that; hope and one that was about to crushed underfoot by violence. "What are you doing here?"

"I think you cheated," William said without mincing words as he stepped out into the scant light illuminated from the full moon above. "I think you cheated to beat me."

"I do not cheat," Ezra returned sharply. He just about had his fill of this English upstart's inability to take his losses like a man. "Now step out of my way. I have no wish to hurt you but I will if I have to impress my point any further.'

"Well that's right proper of you mate," William replied almost chuckling. "Unfortunately, I _do_ wish to hurt you."

Whether or not it was the trick of the light or something more that Ezra had no understanding of, William's face suddenly changed. It changed into something Ezra could not even begin to imagine with yellow eyes and teeth that belonged to an animal and not a human. Ezra staggered backwards, so over taken with astonishment that for a moment he did not know what to do. "What are you?" He managed to ask.

"I'm death," William smiled and lunged at him. 

Ezra reacted instinctively, reaching for his gun but his attacker was fast, so fast that the gambler never managed to unsheathe the Remington resting comfortably in his holster. He heard a growl just before he toppled to the ground, feeling an icy breath on his neck as William reached for his hand and pinned it to the ground helplessly. Ezra struggled hard but the man's grip was powerful beyond belief. He could not even manage to keep his wrist from digging into the dirt once William had a hold of him. Ezra saw a glint of light on the creature's jaw as William opened his mouth, preparing to bite when all reason left the gambler as he started to cry out. Perhaps Vin was close enough to hear him. 

God he hoped so!

"They won't get here in time to save you mate," William grinned, bearing his fangs as he lowered his head to Ezra's neck.

His scream tore through the night at the same time William broke skin. Ezra felt his teeth sink into this throat and felt his blood draining. He could not understand what was happening or what William was but it would not matter because he was going to die....

**********

  
There was no time to think. There was only time to react.

Spike broke into a run, drawn by the scent of blood and fear that wafted through the darkened street of the town he knew only from his false memories as being Four Corners. They arrived only a short time ago, stepping through the centuries as if they had stepped through a door from one room to another. There was disorientation for a few minutes for both human and vampire although the latter recovered far swifter than his companions. However, when he heard the scream of terror, his senses came alive with surprising alertness and he was running before he even knew it. The spell had brought them back in time to the day that he had done the terrible deed that saw Buffy's existence erased but not even Tara's abilities could pinpoint the exact hour of their arrival. Now it seemed as if they had appeared just in time.

Spike had never ran so fast in his life. The only time he had remembered doing so with such urgency was when Dawn had been poised for sacrifice on that gantry that Glory had constructed to open the dimensions. His failure to save her had forced Buffy to sacrifice her own life and Spike had no intention of allowing that to happen again. Spike turned a corner and knew that prey and hunter was close and that the killing had already begun. The thought that he might be too late create a wail of anguish inside him as he ran faster, pushing himself to the absolute limits of his vampire abilities. When it seem like Spike would never reach them, he saw his younger self feeding on the gambler and felt his stomach lurch into his throat. 

The man was still alive, Spike realised because he could see him struggling but not for long if he was drained any further. Spike raced forward and grabbed his past self with both hands and flung him backwards with enough force to send the vampire flying through the air and crashing into support beam of a nearby awning. There was a tremendous crash of it breaking and the awning giving way, bringing down wood and slats loudly over the predator. Spike turned to the his William's victim and saw that the human was still alive, Spike could hear his heart pounding with fright in his ears. 

"Spike!" Giles called out as he and Tara finally caught up with him, both were breathing hard, incapable of matching his devastating pace. Spike was not listening, he went instead to the man, Standish, lying on the ground clutching his bleeding throat.

"Hey," Spike went to him and caught him by the arm. "You still with us?" 

Ezra Standish stared into the face of his savior a little dazed but very much alive. "What...what....what...was that?" Ezra stammered at a loss for words for the possibly the first time in his life.

"That can wait," Spike retorted quickly, trying not to be affected by the intoxicating scent of fresh blood flowing from the man's neck. "Watcher! He needs help!"

"Of course," Giles hurried forward to the fallen man to help him off the ground. Spike stepped back and let them proceed for he was not one to give aid and comfort to the injured which was just as well because he heard the heaving of wood and knew that his younger self was waking up. 

"Is that him?" Tara asked as she came up along side of him. "I mean you?"

William stood up shakily, wood and dust falling off him as he stood up, still wearing his vampire visage. Spike stared at him for a moment, a little taken back by seeing himself for the first time in almost a hundred and twenty years. At this point, William would have been a vampire only a few years. Inwardly, Spike knew that nothing about himself had changed since the day he was turned but he could not help staring at the person he was. In place of his peroxide hair was honey blond hair, worn with a Hugh Grant kind of flop as Red would say. Spike could not believe he was ever _that_ young.

"Hello there Junior," Spike replied catching William's attention. "Sorry to interrupt your fun here but believe me when I say that you don't want this one."

"Who the bloody hell are you?" William hissed in his direction.

"Take a good look," Spike pushed his chin out a little so that William could see him better. "I know it's been awhile since you've seen your reflection but I reckon you know who I am."

William's game face evaporated when he did as he was told. His eyes furrowed in confusion as recognition seeped in. "Its a trick! You can't be." He stammered in shock.

"I am and I'm telling you for your own good to let this one go," Spike ordered, gesturing to Ezra who was being helped to his feet by Giles.

"Spike, I don't think he's in the listening mood," Tara whispered in his ear.

"Witch," Spike turned away from his earlier version to the young woman. "This isn't the time to give me a narrative. This is dangerous business here, go help Giles."

William took advantage of his distraction and lunged but before he could reach Spike, the vampire turned back to face him at the last minute, slamming his first into the younger versions' face and sending him sprawling. 

"Blimey," Spike shook his head as he saw William tumbling towards the dirt. "Was I actually that bloody dumb? No wonder Angelus thought I'd never last. You know, if you keep acting like a bleeding hot headed fool, you're not going to make it to a hundred and I for one, will pretty pissed off at that." He said to William reproachfully.

"Maybe we ought to go," Tara tugged at his coat. 

Spike frowned, studying William. He was dazed but not for long and Spike would prefer to avoid a second round with his younger self at this time. 

"We should stake him," Tara advised looking at the disorientated vampire with fear. 

Spike turned to her. "Hello, stake him – I disappear. I'd rather you not do that."

"Oh!" Tara exclaimed. "Sorry," she winced in embarrassment.

"That's alright," Spike rolled his eyes and glanced at his younger counterpart. "Well see you around William."

William did not answer and for the moment anyway, that was a good sign as far as Spike was concerned because knowing how he was back in those days, the moment that William was in full control of his faculties, he would be in possession of a murderous rage. Considering that Spike could not stake him, it was wise to be elsewhere when that happened. Besides, they had more immediate problems to deal with. Buffy's ancestor still lived which meant somewhere in the future, so did his Slayer and he was going to work very hard to see to it that thing remained that way.

**********

"What happened?" Chris Larabee demanded shortly after entering Nathan's infirmary. 

Vin had ridden out to his shack to tell him of what had happened after his departure from town and the fact that one of his men had been attacked did not put the gunslinger in the best frame of mind. Vin had told him very little on the journey back to town, admitting little more than the fact that Ezra had been attacked and that some strangers had come to his rescue. Chris knew there was more to it then that and it concerned him that Vin could not tell him the rest of it. He and Vin were able to confide in most things to each other, that he found it hard to tell Chris the truth now, deepened Chris' anxiety regarding the situation that they now found himself in.

"He's alright," Nathan said quickly, allaying Chris' fears because he knew how worried Chris could get about any one of them being hurt. "He lost a little blood and he'll be in here with me for a day or two but other than that, he's okay."

"Fine," Chris bristled, not liking the lack of answer even with that reassurance in mind. "He's fine, now tell me what happened?" 

"I'm afraid its going to be a little hard to believe," a tall man with steel rimmed glasses approached him wearing odd clothes.

"Who the hell are you?" Chris asked gruffly.

"My name is Rupert Giles," the stranger introduced himself. "This is my friend Tara and that there is Spike."

Chris nodded politely at the girl but his eyes had already caught sight of the young man standing rather indifferently against the wall, wearing a leather coat not unlike a duster and appearing almost bored by the conversation taking place around him. "Marsden?"

"Spike," he replied with the same voice. "But no, I'm not him."

"You look like him," Chris declared walking up to him. "You look a hell of a lot like him. Brothers?"

"Not bloody likely," Spike snorted and suddenly felt on guard around this human with the glare that could cut glass. Judging by the way he was dressed and his demeanor, Spike came to the conclusion that as humans went, this one could be pretty nasty if given a chance. 

Spike warmed to him immediately. 

"Chris, he saved Ezra's life," Vin explained quickly because he could see Chris becoming exceedingly hostile unless he got some answers soon. 

"Saved Ezra from whom?" Chris asked with exasperation

"Marsden," Nathan answered promptly. "At least, he thinks it was Marsden."

"He thinks?" Chris stared at the people in the room as if he was the only sane one present. "He isn't sure?"

"The man took a big bite out of Ezra's neck, if Spike here hadn't come along, he would be dead by now." Vin added.

"Let me get this straight," Chris shook his head. The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle he was getting from Nathan and Vin added up to whole bunch of confusion. "Marsden bit Ezra's throat and almost killed him? With his teeth?"

"Oh bloody hell," Spike rolled his eyes in exasperation and wondered why Larabee put up with this idiots who were incapable of giving him a straight answer. "Alright Tex," he spoke up. "This is the story. Your friend was attacked by a vampire – see Exhibit A." He pointed to himself and switched to game face as Buffy liked to call his vampire visage.

"Holy Christ!" Chris stumbled back and went for his gun as did Vin, who had not been aware of that aspect of Spike since there had been little time to learn anything after being told that Ezra had been attacked by some kind of creature. Nathan was similarly shocked but considering that he had just emerged from treating a patient, he was not armed and merely stepped back, giving Spike a wide berth.

"Subtle Spike," Giles gave the vampire a reproachful frown and tried to get the situation under control. 

"What the hell are you?" Chris demanded, his gun drawn and not about to lower it any time soon.

"He's a vampire," Giles explained quickly, very conscious of the guns the two men were holding. "Please, there is an explanation for this. He won't harm you. He saved your friend's life for now but the danger is not over."

If anything managed to penetrate Chris' horror as he stared at the man, creature, whatever it was before him, it was the notion that any one of his men was in danger. "What do you mean?" He asked sharply.

"It will be hard to believe," Giles replied, "but you must understand that a great deal depends on your friend's survival and we've come a long way to see that he remains safe."

"Try me," Chris glanced at Spike whose face had returned to normal now. "At this moment, I can believe a lot."

Giles hoped so and began to tell him.

**********

All was silent when explanations were made and the seconds seemed to tick by as if there was some invisible clock in the background making itself heard only in their minds. Giles did not realize he was holding his breath as he waited for Chris Larabee or one of his men to say something. The gunslinger was quiet, as if correlating all that he had heard and was trying to process it. Giles could not blame him for his disbelief. The world these men came from was hard and cold, with science and demonology so far away from their existence it was almost a different language. These were practical times, bound tight by convention and religious belief. It had to be difficult for any of the men present in this room to grasp that all that Giles had told them.

"Why Ezra?" Chris finally asked. His mind was reeling with Giles' explanation, that Ezra had been marked by a vampire for death. The concept of there even being such creatures was hard enough to grasp let alone be confronted with the idea of moving through time like one rode from one town to another. These were thoughts larger than his comprehension and dealing with them was hard, even for someone like Chris.

"Revenge," Spike answered before Giles could. Somehow he had a feeling that Larabee understood revenge and sorrow quite well. "I pissed off a demon and he decided to get back at me by erasing the existence of someone I cared about a great deal."

"Someone?" Chris guessed from the look in the vampire's eyes that he was referring to someone special. "I'm guessing its a she."

"Give the man a prize," Spike frowned. "Yes, a girl but not just any girl. She's a Slayer."

"A slayer?" Vin asked puzzled. "What's a slayer?"

"The Chosen One," Giles started to speak eliciting a groan from Spike.

"You had to ask didn't you? He lives for this." Spike glanced at Giles.

Giles glared at Spike before continuing. "To each and every generation a slayer is born, she is the Chosen One. One girl in all the world with the strength and the power to fight the demons and vampires. When Spike's demon removed her, he took from our time the Slayer who could have stopped our world from turning into a vampire haven. We have to get her back."

"A girl?" Vin was incredulous. "The Chosen One is a girl? You expect a girl to fight these things? Alone?"

"Hey," Tara began to frown. "I'm sensing a little chauvinism here."

Chris dismissed both Vin and Tara at the same time, "what's this got to do with Ezra?"

"The bastard wanted to make me suffer," Spike said bitterly. "He wanted me to know that I was the one who made her come undone. Somehow he put me here, a hundred years before she was even born when I didn't know anything about her and made me kill your friend." Spike's words were filled with emotion and he had to stop a minute to compose himself and look away from the gazes of those present.

The rest unfolded easily for Chris once Spike had made that admission. Yes, he did know a great deal about revenge and about losing a woman that meant everything. It was only a few months ago that he had found out that Sarah and Adam had not been the victims of a fire but rather one that was deliberately set by their murders. He could see the anguish in this vampire's eyes and knew how it felt with perfect empathy. "He wanted to make you responsible for her death, whatever," Chris faced him. "Wanted you to remember that her being gone was your fault and no one else's."

"Yeah," Spike swallowed thickly. "That's about the size of it."

"So that means...." Vin started to understand as well. "She's related to Ezra?"

"Her mother's name was Standish," Giles explained softly. "We believe she is a direct descendant of your friend."

"But you stopped Ezra from being killed," Nathan pointed out. "Doesn't that mean she's okay now?"

"No," Chris answered before Giles could. "Those vampires are still here. They haven't gone and if they're still here, there's still a chance they may come after Ezra and kill him."

"So what do we do?" Vin asked. 

Chris did not know how to respond and faced Giles and Spike, hoping they would have an answer. "You know these things better than we do."

"I'm not sure," Giles admitted. "We didn't think beyond getting here."

"We better come up with something fast," Spike announced. "Because my younger self isn't alone He's got friends and they're a damn sight more dangerous than he is right now. Once they've heard the goings on tonight, they'll be coming."

*********

"You idiot!" William heard those angry words before he was slammed into the wall of the room he and Drusilla shared.

"Get your hands off me!" William snarled and tried to break free. It only resulted in being thrown back with even more force.

"I told you that we would not hunt here!" Angelus hissed. "I have games to play that need us to be discreet! If you had to feed you should have gone out of town like we did!"

"Don't be angry with my boy, daddy." Drusilla drifted to William's side. "He couldn't help it. There were voices telling him things. Flies buzzing around his head."

"What?" Both Angelus and William turned to her at the same time with confusion.

"What are you talking about Dru?" William asked gently. "There was nothing wrong with me."

"It was only for a little bit, pet." Dru answered as she drifted to the divan where a row of porcelain dolls had been placed in a neat row. "Just a little tickle to make you dance."

"There's something going on here Angelus," William turned back to his grandsire. "I saw a vampire and he looked like me! He was me!" 

"We'll deal with that later," Angelus said angrily, starting to see there were mitigating circumstances involved in this instance that bore investigation. He decided that his desire to put an end to Drusilla's troublesome lover could wait for the moment. Right now, they had bigger troubles to deal with. "For the moment, we need to leave before they come hunting for us. This town isn't that big, it won't take them long to find us so we need to get moving."

"I won't go!" William said defiantly. "Not until I know what's going on!"

"Well that makes two of us William," Angelus glared at him. "But first things first, we'll find a safe place and then get to the bottom of things."

"Fine," William retorted, satisfied with that. "And don't call me William, I'm Spike!"

Angelus shook his head in resignation. "Whatever. Just be ready to leave."


	4. Chapter 3

****

Part Three

Exponential

If there was thing Chris hated more than one-eyed Marshals gunning for his blood, land barons who had an elevated sense of importance and psychotic Confederate Colonels, it was weird s things. Weird things were not supposed to happen to him. Chris Larabee was a man accustomed to dealing with most situations. There had no been any that had arisen yet that he was not in some way equipped to deal with. Most of the time, he attacked the problem the best way he knew how, directly and with the aid of his six companions. On that basis, they had been able to protect the small town of Four Corners from quite a lot. Four Corners these days was a thriving frontier community, no different from any struggling to survive in the Territory. It was a far cry from the utter chaos and lawlessness Chris had ridden into when he first arrived. Thanks to his six companions, all exiles like himself, they had found a home in this town and a bond of friendship none had ever known elsewhere and what bound them togeth er was Four Corners. For that precious friendship, each man had taken the duty of its protection to heart.

However, for the first time since being appointed one of Four Corners' peacekeepers, Chris had no idea what to do.

For starters, he had enough trouble believing what the strangers from the future had told him even if he had seen one of them change from human to what was it they called it again? A vampire? What the hell was a vampire? He heard the Englishman explain it to him (the one who wasn't a vampire that is) as he now attempted to explain the situation to the rest of his men and it still seemed so unbelievable. Yet, Chris knew what he had seen and one minute the younger Englishmen, the one called Spike had appeared to him as a human and the next thing Chris knew, he was staring into a face that shattered all the walls of his very comforting and secure world. Suddenly, Chris came face to face with the supernatural unknown that he had discarded as superstitious nonsense. He had never believed in ghosts and goblins, in demons or monsters. Hell, he had a hard time believing that there was even a God after Sarah and Adam were taken from him.

Now, he was being told that a soul could be taken by one of these monstrous creatures and was left with the sobering realization that he actually had one to lose. Everything that he thought was myth had basis in fact and that meant if there was a Hell, from which such creatures were spawned, then there had to be a heaven. Knowing that infused him with some measure of comfort and it was ironic that it would be because of Sarah and Adam. Even now, his dead family was the one to make the revelations he had experienced this night have some perspective. If there was a heaven then Sarah and Adam were there, waiting for him and it was surprising how good it felt to know for certain that when his life was over, he would be with them again.

"You're crazy," Buck Wilmington's voice declared and returned Chris' attention to the discussion being carried out. 

Following Spike's little display; Chris had thought it best to get the rest of the seven together in order to deal with this situation that had suddenly come upon them. Also present was Ezra who was a little better now that he had some time to rest and recover from his ordeal. The gambler seemed a little uneasy around Spike but that was understandable, considering how close he had come to dying at the hands of someone who looked almost identical to the creature that had tried to take his life. The vampire did not take much offense and had a demeanor that was somewhat odd in comparison to the tales being told by the man called Giles about these creatures. Everything about Spike indicated that he was a vampire, hell Chris had seen it with his own eyes but the younger man's (?) devotion to the woman he had come to save clearly did not make him like the others.

"I can assure," Ezra said weakly "He is not. These creatures exist. Marsden almost ripped out my throat."

"Don't make me show you Exhibit A again," Spike retorted from his corner of the room, not looking at Buck. 

The vampire was staring out the window, trying to equate his memories of the past with this place. The smells were all the same, dried horse manure, the lack of decent plumbing and the sweat that came of too many people crammed together in one place where air conditioning and ventilation was non-existent. Its potency felt terribly alive for the vampire and he remembered that though the world of his youth had been a little more polished, it was no different then this place. 

"Yeah," Vin shuddered, still a little shaken by that. "You _don't_ want to see that."

"Besides," Josiah Sanchez added. "When I was doing missionary work, the Mexicans had a legend about something called _Civateteo."_

"Oh yes," Giles immediately chimed in on that note, familiar with the legend being a watcher. "They were vampire-witches who held sabbaticals at cross roads. They were believed to attack young children and sometimes even mated with human men, producing vampire children. They are believed to be linked to the god Tezeatlipoca."

"Well that's bullocks," Spike retorted. "Vampires can't reproduce. Besides, it takes all the fun out of gratuitous sex," he grinned.

"I'm with him on that," Buck sent Spike a cocky grin, earning groans of resignation from everyone else.

"Well legends can be distorted but some basis in fact remains," Giles responded.

"The people who told me about _Civateteo _were pretty convinced they existed and considering what we now know, its no wonder." Josiah concluded. "Although I suppose its good to know that there is a heaven and a hell. Does wonders for your faith."

"I can't believe that gorgeous filly, Miss Darla is one of them?" Buck stared at the others in the room with astonishment. For the past week, he had been lusting after the woman but had not made any move towards her because her rather formidable looking companion did not appear as if he would have appreciated Buck's attention.

Spike snorted. "She would have had you for a snack mate." 

"Spike," Giles gave him a reproachful look, wishing the vampire would not be quite so blunt with these men. It was a difficult thing to accept what they were being told. It was hard enough to believe in vampires let alone understand how a demon could cause so much destruction in the future by preventing one girl from being born with one of their deaths.

"Look Watcher," Spike glared back at him impatiently. "Angelus is out there and by now, my younger self has probably told him he saw me. Now I can't take all four of them on my own and I'm sure as hell not expecting these blokes to do the same."

"Why not?" JD demanded. "We can handle anything that comes along."

"Junior," Spike glared at the young boy that reminded so much of Xander Harris that the need to bite him was really overwhelming. "I can't them take on alone and I'm pretty nasty sort. They'll eat you alive. Literally."

"Hey back off," Buck stepped in between Spike and JD. "We've handled worse than four vampires."

"We have?" Nathan stared at the big man. "When?"

"Look the fact of the matter is, they are here and we have to deal with them." Giles broke into the conversation before things became more heated. "Now, Angelus, Darla, Drusilla and your earlier self are formidable but not indestructible. You men seemed to be able to handle yourselves, there is no reason why we cannot deal with this situation."

"Do they know what you do?" Chris spoke for the first time since Giles had began explaining to the others, directing his question at Spike alone.

"What do you mean?" Spike looked at the grim man in the black duster.

"Do they know that by killing Ezra, they kill the girl?" Chris asked. 

"No," Spike replied. "But that won't stop them for coming. The 'other Spike' got a good look at me and if Angelus loves nothing else, he loves a mystery. He'll want to know what's going on."

"What about Ezra?" Vin inquired. "Are they likely to come after him?" 

"Only to find out how to get to me." Spike returned. "Best place for him right now, is somewhere else."

"I will not run." Ezra retorted. "I have no intention of hiding from this creature. I was momentarily taken back when I saw Marsden but I shall be able to handle myself."

"Shut up Ezra," Chris growled. "If the man says the best place for you to be right now is somewhere else, then that's where you're gonna be."

"I protest...." Ezra started to speak but Chris silenced him with a patented Larabee glare.

Spike rose a brow and grinned at Chris, "I like your style mate. Real brassy."

Chris took it as a compliment before he regarded Giles and the others once more. "Is there only four of them we got to deal with?"

Giles, Spike and Tara exchanged glances and it was something that did not escape Chris or any of the seven's notice. 

"There is only four _right_?" Chris repeated himself, suddenly struck by the feeling that he was about to be given some rather bad news.

"It depends," Giles swallowed thickly, choosing that moment to clean his glasses.

"On what?" The gunslinger demanded.

"They've been here for a week or more," Spike interjected. "Chances are they would have gotten hungry in that time. From what you've been telling us, they haven't done any feeding in town so that means they've been doing it elsewhere. They may have sired help."

"How much help?" Vin asked fearfully, not liking the notion that they would have to deal with more than four of these creatures. 

"As many as they want," Spike retorted. "When I was the Big Bad, I used to do two or three a night. It's not just the feeding, it's the hunt."

"Hell........." Chris started to groan.

"Their numbers could increase exponentially." Giles admitted. "They may already have minions out there and if Angelus senses a great threat, he may use them against us."

"So what do we do?" Vin looked at Chris.

Chris drew a deep breath and considered their options. He could tell that the situation was just as new to the man called Giles even if the existence of vampires was not. Spike's only interest appeared to be keeping the woman he loved alive, which fortunately meant the continued survival of Ezra while the others were lost between confusion at any of this being real or fear at whether or not they could survive fighting such creatures. However, a course of action had to be taken immediately because Spike was right, they did not have much time. If everything he knew about this Angelus was any indication of how he would react, the Master Vampire would soon be coming after Ezra.

"Ezra, you're leaving town." Chris looked at him. "You'll hole up at the shack for a couple of days, until we sort this mess out."

"Mr. Larabee," Ezra stiffened. "How safe is it going to be for me to be stranded in the middle of nowhere when these creatures come for me?"

"A lot safer than you think," Spike remarked, agreeing with Chris on this point "We can't go where we haven't been invited."

"You're kidding," Vin looked at him. "You mean if no one asks you through the door, you can't come in?"

"Yes," Giles explained. "A vampire cannot come into a home unless he's been invited by its owner."

"That is peculiar," Josiah mused, "but useful."

"Tell me about it, causes no end of grief. Almost got the prey and she runs home, it's bleeding frustrating at times." Spike grumbled. 

"So if we leave Ezra at the shack alone, they can't get him." JD shuddered instead of lingering on thoughts about what assurance they had that the Spike in the room with them would not switch sides. "We could tell people not to invite anyone in they don't know then these vampires can't hurt anyone else."

"That won't stop them from feeding whenever anyone leaves their home," Tara replied. "They could burn down a place if they can't get in. The result is just the same."

"That instills me with a great deal of confidence," Ezra returned sarcastically. "I cannot abide this! They must be mistaken, I am not even married! In fact, I have no intention of being married for quite some time. Perhaps the lineage is wrong."

"The lineage isn't wrong mate," Spike insisted. "That damn demon made it so that you were the one bit. Before all this happened, I'd never even heard of Four Corners, none of us did. Angelus, Darla, me and Dru were in Europe at this time. The fact that we're here and you seemed to be the only one I seem to remember biting makes it the truth. You're the Slayer's grandsire."

"I am _not_ the material from whom Slayers are made," Ezra protested further. 

"Its not a genetic line," Giles quickly explained. "Slayers are not hereditary. They are merely chosen."

"Why not?" Chris asked, somewhat curious on this whole subject of the slayer.

"They don't live long enough to have children." Giles said quietly. "Most of them don't live very long after they are called."

"Hell of a life for a girl," Josiah remarked, unable to imagine a young teenager expected to take on such a responsibility. What must it be like to wake up one day and find that your destiny was to kill creatures that defied all that was holy? Josiah could not even begin to imagine it. 

"Buffy managed alright," Spike said, allowing his emotions to filter into his voice despite his best efforts to conceal. It. "Still would be if I hadn't helped her kill that bastard Chronozon."

"You didn't know it was going to happen," Tara responded sympathetically. 

Spike was having none of that. "I should have stayed out of it. She would have handled him somehow and he wouldn't have felt it necessary to get his revenge on me by taking it out on her."

"Things happen," Vin added. "Most of time, you don't know its gonna until you're half done doing it. Ain't no one's fault when its revenge." 

Spike went silent, uncertain how to take the efforts to make him feel better but felt appreciated the attempt nonetheless. 

"Okay first things first," Chris stated, breaking the tender moment because it appeared the vampire was at a loss to respond and because they needed some form of plan to proceed. "Vin, I want you and Buck to take Ezra out to the shack at first light."

"No way," Spike shook his head. "I'm going where he is."

"Look," Chris bristled, not used to having his orders and not about to tolerate it in any shape or form even the protest came from a vampire. "You brought this mess to town and you're gonna help us deal with it. You said that they can't come in if you don't invite him so if we stash Ezra at the shack he should be safe. Besides, you said this Angelus is going to want to know why Ezra's so important so he'll want to take Ezra alive, meaning no house burning."

"Okay," Spike had to concede that the grim bastard's point of view was valid even though he did not like the idea very much. "I'll stick around town."

"I can go with him," Tara spoke up.

"That's nice of you little lady," Buck said gently, never one to put a lady in danger. "But its probably safer if you stay in town."

"I can take care of myself," Tara pouted in a way that Buck found utterly endearing. "I got us here, didn't I?"

"Really," Giles added in her defense. "Tara is very capable of assisting your companions with Mr. Standish. Besides, if anything does happen, you need someone with you who knows how to deal with vampires."

"He's got a point," Chris replied, having dealt with enough females in his time to know never to underestimate them. He did not look at Tara the way Buck did. To the ladies man, she was just a girl, needing protection. However, Tara must be something if she was able to count time travel as one of her abilities. "Vin, you and Buck will take Tara with you and Buck, keep your mind on the job?"

"Hey!" Buck cried out in mock hurt. "Why was it every time, I try to be nice to a lady, you boys think I'm on the prowl?"

"Because you almost always are?" Vin remarked with a smirk.

"Like I said," Chris repeated himself an octave higher in order to catch their attention again. "On the job or Tara has my permission to turn you into a frog or something."

Tara's cheeks flushed with embarrassment while Spike merely sniggered as if there was some great joke about Buck's interest in the young woman. Whatever it was, the vampire was not about to reveal it to the others just yet and turned away before he was forced to explain it.

"What about the rest of us?" Nathan inquired ignoring Buck's protestations of innocence.

Chris glanced at Giles. "It would be a good idea if we could find them before they came after us. Any ideas on that?"

Giles considered what he had been told about the quartet's patterns since arriving in Four Corners. No doubt their actions were carried out so as to ensure no one knew what they were, so that they could feed without the difficulty that came with an entire town knowing there were vampire loose in the night. Now that the secret was out, Giles was convinced that Angelus immediate concern would be to move his 'family' out of town before any one came hunting for them. It would make things a great deal simpler if the family chose to move on but Giles knew from the records about Angelus, which he had studied in detail after Angel had come to Sunnydale, was fascinated by the bizarre. The appearance of another Spike would definitely fall into that category. He would pursue the matter until he unraveled the mystery and killed everyone in the process.

"Chances are, they would have left town the minute William," he saw Spike opening his mouth to say something and quickly answered the question the vampire was going to ask regarding the name Giles had called his previous self. "Let's call him William for the sake of avoiding confusion, shall we?"

"Whatever," Spike scowled and turned back to his observation beyond the window.

"William would have no doubt reported what happened to Angelus and it's my guess they'll leave town to find a hiding place before dawn." Giles continued. "Do we know how far they can get before sunrise?"

"Quite a ways," Chris retorted, not liking this at all. "There's at least three major towns around here, not to mention a lot of homesteads scattered around the area. If they wanted to hide, they could choose any one of those."

"We'll have to search them all," Giles announced.

"That's a lot of ground to cover," Vin pointed out. "Can we narrow it down any more than that?"

"Not really," Giles shook his head in response. "I'm afraid any where with sufficient space for a basement could be made into a nest."

"We're not bloody cockroaches," Spike declared hotly. "We call it a lair."

"If Marsden was you in this time, can't you remember where you've been?" JD asked after a moment. The young man's words escaped him with some measure of hesitation as if he was trying to word his sentence in a manner that could be understood even if the concept was beyond him a little.

"Unfortunately not," Ezra answered before Spike could. "Spike's recollections of this time would be consistent if Marsden had actually killed me. Since he managed to avert the outcome, the past he remembers is no longer viable because the time line has diverged somewhat."

"Couldn't have said better myself," Spike commented. "I guess she does get a little bit of the smarts from you other than just height."

"You mean she's real little too?" Buck teased Ezra who gave him a dark look.

"Well she is kind of small," Spike remarked, always enjoying provoking others. "Got his hair and his colored eyes."

"She's sounds like someone I wouldn't mind meeting," JD joked.

"I do not suppose you have any idea who I am supposed to sire her with?" Ezra inquired, still unable to deal with the fact that one of his descendants was going to be a 'vampire' slayer. It certainly did not fit in with the solitary lifestyle he thought he would lead.

"Not really," Giles shrugged. "The records on hand did not have any information about you beyond the fact that you died. It was mere assumption that allowed us to come to the conclusion that you were indeed Buffy's ancestor."

"Wonderful," Ezra sighed, seeing that there was no way he could think his way out of this situation. "I just hope she is rich."

*************

A scream tore through the night as the last member of the Landers family met their demise in a single moment of blood and tearing. Her final cry faded away in an instant and there was only silence in the wake of abrupt demise. It had all been very quick; from the moment her husband had seen the strangers carriage approaching the house to the instant when the tall, dark man with flowing dark hand beckoned her with a mesmerizing stare before he tore out her throat. She died with the memory of the screams uttered by her frightened children forever branded onto the remaining seconds of her life. There was another moment of clarity, when she felt teeth digging into her skin and that was all she knew.

Angelus dropped the body of Margaret Landers onto the floor of her pristine kitchen after he had drained her, feeling somewhat renewed after their hasty departure from Four Corners. He wiped the smattering of blood from his lips and studied his new surroundings with passing interest. The home was rustic but supplied with the conveniences. Darla would not be too impressed with their new accommodations but he knew that she would tolerate it for him. He made a mental note to take her to San Francisco once their business in the Territory was concluded. It would be an adequate salve for the indignities she would have to endure while he tried to unravel what had happened with Spike tonight.

Just thinking about his minion once removed from Drusilla filled the vampire with annoyance. They had things so perfect in Four Corners, using it as a base while they fed off the surrounding towns. He had so many plans for the lovely young widow who ran the local newspaper and now they would have to take second place in light of the current situation. Spike had been a thorn in his side ever since Drusilla had sired him. Angelus had to marvel at the fountain of rage that had been repressed within the human Spike had been before his death. Upon turning, all that fury burst forth into a violent mix of aggression that must have surely made the demon inside of him delighted with glee. For someone who appeared to have no spine before turning into the creature he was, Spike as a vampire had fear of nothing. He did not fear Angelus, merely respected him and there was no situation in which he would not run head long into. While that could be an advantage at times, at other times, like this one for i nstance, it could be damned inconvenient.

Angelus left the kitchen and stormed into the main parlor of the house where Darla had finished with the senior member of the Landers household. Paul Landers was on the floor, the blood on his neck and exposed flesh was an indication of his death. Angelus spotted a slash of blood across Darla's breast and noted the blood on the man's lips. He did not appear particularly impressive but then the purpose of the exercise was not to create a minion that would last for any length of time, just for their immediate needs. He would rise in a day or two so it was best to keep him out of the light for the time being.

"I chose not to use the woman," Angelus announced to Darla upon his approach. "I didn't think she had what it takes."

"We're going to need more than just one minion then," Darla raised her eyes towards him from her latest conquest. "Drusilla and William are finished with the children." Her face shifted to its human visage once more and she wiped the blood from her lips as she came towards him.

"We'll deal with that in a day or two," Angelus responded pulling up a chair. "Right now, I'm more interested in why we had to run."

"He's impetuous," Darla smiled, knowing that his anger at William had yet to abate. She circled him and began massaging his shoulders. Angelus released a deep sigh, leaning into her fingers as she kneaded the knots out of his muscle. 

"He's hot headed and dangerous," Angelus grumbled as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensation of her touch on his skin, even through shirt.

"No more than you were," Darla lowered her lips to his ear and whispered. "He's young and he's finding his way. Remember how you were?"

Angelus did remember. Darla had brought him to meet the Master and being the fool he was, he had allowed his mouth to run away with him again, provoking the wrath of the King Vampire who would have surely killed him if it was not for Darla's interference. She had left the Master for him and Angelus adored her for that. He supposed that William who was less than a handful of years old would grow some sense with experience. For Drusilla's sake, he hoped this was the truth since the girl was quite taken with her William. And if he did get himself killed, well then the situation would take care of itself all on its own.

"I suppose you are right as always," Angelus raised his eyes to Darla and their lips met in an icy kiss that did nothing to diminish their passion for one another. After a moment, Angelus pulled away, deciding it was time they discussed in depth what had happened to force their abrupt departure from Four Corners.

"The situation in Four Corners still needs to be addressed." He stated firmly.

"We could just move on," she suggested.

"Ah we could darling," Angelus smiled. "But I would like to know what exactly it was that William ran into. He doesn't run easily and I have never seen him go after a human and fail to kill."

"He said that he saw another vampire, one that looked like him." Darla remarked.

"Yes," Angelus took that into consideration. "William!" He called out, sitting up straight in the chair, waiting for the younger vampire like he was a reproachful father. The thought of his being authoritarian to William brought the unpleasant memory of his own father back to him and even though the man seventy years dead in the past, his power over Angelus was no less than it had been when Angelus had been his son Liam. The notion that he was acting just like his hypocritical father did not please him much and Angelus reminded himself of what Darla had said, that in his early years as a vampire, he was almost as foolish and hot headed as William.

William emerged from the adjoining room where the Landers children had met their grisly faith with Drusilla following closely behind as always. The younger vampire swaggered in as usual, arrogance exuding from each step that he took. A premonition there and then told Angelus that experience would not temper that warring spirit, it would only intensify it, make it more lethal. In that instant as he saw Spike approach, Angelus was struck with the realization that no one could really control William because he loved too much what he was and he relished the power of his demon more than he missed the human he had been. In truth, they all felt some way the yearnings of their human existence; the ability to walk in the sunlight, to feel the warmth of living on their skin and a sense of completion knowing that they were finite.

William did not feel the regret. Whatever he had been in life must have been so terrible that he absolutely relished the demon that had taken him and in allowing it free reign with complete willingness, he had managed to emerge without any fear of anything, not even the Slayers. He had been actively pestering the family to seek out the Slayer but Angelus had no taste for travelling to Rhodesia. It was hardly civilized and even he had his limits. Besides, inwardly, he was not entirely sure he wanted to face the infamous Slayers because there was always a chance that she might hurt the family and Angelus was not about to risk that for anything.

"My name is Spike," William retorted as he came to a pause in front of Angelus.

"Fine then," Angelus stiffened in annoyance. "Spike it is. Now do you care to tell me why I had take my ladies from their comforts, running away like vermin in the night?"

"I told you," William growled. "There was a vampire there and he looked like me."

"An imposter?" Darla asked curiously. 

"I don't think so," William showed his uncertainty for the first time. "He told me to take a good look at him and I did but he didn't look like an imposter. He was me." His voice drifted away, his confusion plain to see. "I don't understand it."

"Tell me everything he said," Angelus ordered, finding himself somewhat intrigued by William's tale. 

William told Angelus everything about the evening's encounter, from his game of poker with the gambler Ezra Standish, to his sudden desire to take the man's life culminating with the encounter wit his double. Angelus listened carefully for a few minutes, saying nothing as William stated his case and unlike the usual sneer the younger vampire usually wore when describing his exploits, on this occasion there was only anxiety and hesitation. William was telling the truth, Angelus was certain of it, despite how insane it sounded. However, insanity was in the eye of the beholder when one lived in a world where one was a vampire and demons ran the earth freely. In comparison, a double was not that abnormal.

"The girl who was with him," William added. "She called him Spike."

"And he kept saying that you did not want to harm Standish for your own good?" Darla asked.

"Yeah, he kept bloody well saying that I'd regret it." William returned confused. "I know its crazy but he was me. I'm sure of it."

"I don't doubt you lad," Angelus returned. "It's damn strange though. I'd like to know what so important about one human that a vampire, even one that might be you would go to all the trouble of protecting."

"It is Spike daddy," Drusilla responded, having been quite all this time. "But not our Spike. I can feel him in my head. It's like an echo in two."

"What does that mean?" Darla declared quizzically. She did not put as much faith as Angelus did in Drusilla's seeing abilities.

"Tell me darling," Angelus rose to his feet and went to Drusilla. He slid his arm around her neck and immediately drew a dark look from William who was apart from being unreasonably aggressive was also insanely jealous when it came to his black princess.

Drusilla smiled as Angelus lowered his lips to her ear and whispered softly. "Tell me what you see."

"Spike wasn't alone in his head, there was something else there," Drusilla responded, transfixed by something she could not see. The others were accustomed to the visions that Drusilla was prone to having and while Darla thought them to be ambiguous as times, Angelus and William relied upon them on many occasions. 

"You keep saying that luv," William took her arm and gently pulled her to him, not wishing her to remain in Angelus' grasp. "I wasn't."

"Only for a little bit Spike," she smiled adoringly at him as her hand caressed the side of his face with love. "He buzzed inside your head for a while, telling you to kill that man."

"Well Spike?" Angelus looked at him hard. "Are you sure that you wanted to kill that man? I haven't known you to kill anyone you gamble with. You always told me that a game is lost fair and square."

"Yes but....." William's voice trailed off.

"Did he cheat?" Darla asked him pointedly.

William looked at her for a minute, about to say yes when he really considered the question. Had Standish cheated? William did not think he did. He was an excellent player but then the man was a professional gambler. He had been angry to lose but only because he had been bested by a human. He had been beaten before at the gaming tables but there was never a desire in him to go out and kill someone for that. As a vampire, he did not have many scruples but he did recognize a good fight when he saw it and was reluctant to the a poor loser by taking it out on someone just because they defeated him fair and square.

"No," William shook his head finally. "I don't think he did. I just wanted to kill him."

"It wanted you to kill him Spike," Drusilla corrected him. "It wants him dead."

"I'd like to know what _it_ is." Darla retorted impatiently, not liking the idea that a dark force was capable of influencing their thoughts and make them bend to its will.

"It's from a very bad place daddy," Drusilla looked over her shoulder at Angelus. "I can hear the screaming behind it but its not here, it just speaks loudly in Spike's head and it hates him so much."

"Hates me?" William's eyes widened. "Why because I'm a vampire?"

"No," she shook her head. "Just you. He hates you, wants to make you suffer."

"I don't see how killing this Standish fellow is going to do that. He plays good cards but that's about all. Hardly enough for me to give a wrack about."

"I want to know what's so special about this gambler that dark forces are hell bent on you killing him." Angelus stated.

"Maybe we should find out." Darla met his gaze.

"Aye," Angelus nodded slowly. "I think we will at that."

***********

It was morning before Nathan was remotely agreeable to allowing Ezra make the journey to Chris' shack, much to the gunslinger's chagrin. Refusing Spike's offer to bite Nathan, Chris decided that it was probably best to let the healer have his way in this matter since Nathan could be a holy terror when it came to endangering anyone of his friends' life because of indifference to their wounds. Spike on the other hand remained within the confines of the jailhouse, since the back cells allowed little light to reach them and offered him some measure of protection from the daylight. 

It did not impress the vampire very much to remain confined but supposed that this was no different from being trapped in his crypt all day waiting for Buffy to call. He still did not like the idea of letting Ezra Standish out of his sight but supposed he had little choice in the matter. Chris Larabee, the leader of the seven men was right in the fact that he was needed to deal with Angelus and the others that would inevitably come with him. As it was, Spike had no idea how the remaining lawmen were going to manage defending themselves against four of the most vicious vampires he knew, himself most of all.

He expected a few of them would not survive the night.

Spike tried to rest on the lumpy bunk within the jail cell and wondered if half the torture of being a criminal was being forced to sleep on beds like this. After some tossing and turning he managed to get a few hours sleep, not being able to do so since walking up to the nightmarish world where the Master ruled and everything that had transpired since coming to this point. His sleep was less then peaceful for he was plagued with images of Buffy on that gantry except this time, it was not she that leapt off its edge, it was he that pushed her. He watched the betrayal in her eyes, the trust he had almost died to earn withering before him as gravity did its work, pulling her into the darkness. He clawed air, trying to reach her but it was too late, the black swallowed her up and he had lost her forever.

"BUFFY NO!" Spike cried out and sat upright. 

For a minute he could do nothing but sit there, panting as his anxiety started to diminish at the realization that he was back in the waking world. If he was still alive, he would be covered with sweat but as it was, he was jittery all over and the images of her eyes lingered with him longer than they should have. He was so wrapped up in his experience that he did not realize that he was entirely alone.

"You okay?" He asked the low rumbling voice of the man they called Josiah inquire. 

Spike's gaze shifted quickly to the older man's face and he immediately felt foolish for exposing his vulnerabilities to anyone. "I'm fine," Spike muttered a little sitting up.

"Brought you something to eat," Josiah remarked as he tried not to look at the mug of blood that they had acquired from the butcher shop a little while ago. 

"I'm not the bacon and eggs type," Spike pointed out and was mildly surprised when Josiah handed him the cup. "Thanks." 

"Raised an eyebrow or two getting that," Josiah replied as he sat down on the bunk across Spike's. "Had to tell Carlyle the butcher that we needed it to bait a coyote that was roaming the hills."

"You'd be surprised what people would believe," Spike remarked as he started to drink. The blood was fresh and judging by the texture, from a cow. 

"So what's the future like?" Josiah asked, appearing unconcerned at Spike's dietary requirements. There were rituals were the drinking of blood was customary and more than a few that Josiah had witnessed during his travels. 

"Decadent," Spike retorted shortly. "Loud, noisy, better plumbing, less restrictive. It has its moments and it can be a right bastard too."

"I think every generation says that," Josiah added with a smile. "You know, seeing you has reinforced my faith in God."

Spike's brow shot up in puzzlement. "How?" He asked lowering the steel cup.

"You being a demon, meaning there is a hell and if there is a hell by definition there must be a heaven and all that goes with it." Josiah explained.

"I suppose," Spike nodded. "But us demons aren't all evil and destruction you know. There are some who just are what they are and can't help it. Most of the time, they remain hidden, going about their business, not wanting to hurt anyone or anything."

"I suppose that is further proof that we are all God's creatures." Josiah pointed out.

"I wouldn't go that far mate," Spike smiled a little, unable to deny that the man's understanding of things was extremely enlightened for his era. "I don't know what it is we have inside us, whether demons have a soul or not but we feel and we react to how we feel."

"Like you and this slayer." Josiah stated.

"Yeah," Spike nodded slowly, "like me and the slayer."

"You're very much in love with her." The preacher stated.

"Much to my dismay, " he muttered. He did not want to talk to the preacher about Buffy but somehow the words were coming from him without hesitation. Perhaps it was just the preacher's willingness to listen that made him speak. "Don't want to be you know? I mean she's tough to love. Can't blame her I suppose. What she does takes a lot out of her. She was called when she was sixteen and she's had to grow up fast, faster than most people should ever have to."

"We'll find someway out of this," Josiah said sympathetically.

"I like to know how," Spike grumbled. "This isn't going to be easy. We can't kill them. They effect the future considerably. Kill them and we change how it goes. Its all cause and effect mate and we can't alter any of it. Somehow, we have to drive them out of town without killing them."

"Well find a way," Josiah repeated himself, his faith telling him that they will find some way to handle the situation, no matter how bleak it was.

"Do all you preachers live through rose colored glasses?" The vampire asked, a little smile on his lips.

'Most of the time," Josiah chuckled. "The rest of it we just have unswerving faith in the people around us."

"That sounds bloody awful." Spike commented with open distaste.

"You have no idea," the older man chuckled.

*********

"There it is," Ezra grumbled openly when they approached the shack on Chris Larabee's little parcel of land in the distance. "My prison until this nightmare is over. I think I shall be sick now." 

The small shack did not appear to be terribly lavish as far as Tara was concerned, but then she came from a world that was dilapidated into wreck and ruin ever since the Master had risen and so any place safe was usually acceptable to her. Besides, it overlooked a nice stretch of land with sun burnt grass and trees framing it in places. The air was heavy with pollen and dry soil, smells she equated with the great outdoors and a serenity that seemed a world away from what she had known. The sun was high in the sky and it appeared as if it was going to be something of a scorcher. 

For the sake of blending into their new environment, she had worn a garment of the period and wondered how women of this time did not go insane form heatstroke at having to wear such cumbersome clothes. She had drawn the line at the ridiculous undergarments and was grateful for that decision. All that linen and lace under an already thick dress would have stretched even her usually unassuming temperament to something quite vicious. Tara smiled, thinking it was a good idea that Cordelia had remained with Angel, she would have surely balked at the suggestion of dressing up in Old West clothing.

"You ride pretty well ma'am." Vin Tanner, the handsome tracker with the blue eyes remarked. "You ride back where you come from?"

"A little," Tara responded. "My dad bought me a pony when I was a little girl." Of course this was in the days before he was convinced that her demon seed would emerge and destroy them all. Later on she learnt from Giles and Angel that she was perfectly normal and the myth of the females in the family possessing a demon gene was just a ploy used by the chauvinistic males of the same to control their women.

Vin Tanner did not talk much, Tara noticed, where else Buck Wilmington and Ezra Standish did not seem to stop. However, there was no doubt in her mind that while Vin was younger and quieter than his older companions were, they clearly followed his lead. Tara wondered what the Slayer was like and remembered how quiet Kendra had been. Was Spike's much loved Slayer the same way when coming from such a verbose ancestor? She realized she would never know for certain. If they were successful in being able to protect Buffy's existence then the reality she knew would never exist. Spike said that it was for their own good, that the world that was meant to be was so much better for them all. While it was not in her nature to trust a vampire, there was enough sincerity in his voice for her to believe he was telling the truth.

"Do people still ride horses in the future little lady?" Buck inquired.

Tara found himself smiling at that. It was easy not to be offended by the big man because he was so damn friendly and determined to see to her safety that it bordered on being sweet at time. "Some do," she answered. "But mostly for fun. We ride in cars mostly."

"Cars?" Ezra raised a brow. "Pray tell what is that?"

"Its like a carriage that has a motor like steam engines, only small enough for five people." Tara explained, hoping that was clear enough.

The concept was obviously difficult for them to accept because Karl Benz's invention was still some years away and little more than a dream at the moment. Tara supposed it was difficult for them to accept so much of what she, Giles and Spike told them. The politics of these men's lives were confined to the law of the gun and the harsh, real world which they could see, not the supernatural which she was accustomed to. As it was, she was somewhat amazed at how much they had been able to believe considering everything had been dropped into their lap somewhat abruptly.

"What its like where you come from?" Vin asked.

Tara sucked in a breath as she thought about the world she had left behind when she had traveled to this time. 

"Well we stay indoors at night." Tara explained as they closed the distance towards Chris' shack. "We have a curfew set for an hour before dawn, just to make sure people get inside. It's not so bad in other town so a lot of people have left Sunnydale. We keep the doors locked and put garlic and crosses on the window. We keep holy water on hand at all times. Sometimes the vampires are smart, they wait until daylight when the thing people have let their guard down and attack where places are shaded. They can come out during the day, they just can't enter sunlight."

"Jesus," Ezra whispered. "And this is how you live?"

"I help Giles," Tara volunteered, nothing the horrified expression on all their faces. "I know magic and sometimes I use spells to fight them off. Giles, he knows everything about them and there are few of us that fight them. Me, Angel and Cordelia that is."

"And the slayer?" Buck asked. "Clue me in on how that works."

"Oh," Tara considered the questions since the Slayer was more Giles' area of expertise then hers. However, she remembered what Kendra had told her about being a Slayer. "A slayer gets called whenever one of them dies. After Kendra, there was Faith but she died fighting the Master. They're lot stronger than normal humans are though. I once saw Faith bend the barrel of shotgun with her bare hands. They are trained as early as possible to fight vampires, using stakes, knives, maces, Kendra actually used a sword once."

"And they don't live very long." Vin mused, remembering that much from what Giles told them. "I don't think I could live like that."

Tara wholeheartedly agreed but then the Slayers did not live very long with that either.

***********

The tavern was quite tonight and Chris had no idea what he was expecting.

Even though Inez stood behind the saloon counter, polishing glasses and keeping up the appearance that business was running smoothly, the handful of patrons in the establishment were there by invitation only. Nathan, JD, Spike and Josiah were engaged in games of cards with the vampire looking to be quite the cardsharp like his past incarnation. Outside the sun had well and truly set and the darkness seemed particularly pitched tonight beyond the illumination of the saloon's lighting. Chris wondered how Vin, Ezra, Buck and Tara were faring; hoping this gamble of keeping them out of town was not in fact monumental mistake. Spike was certain that Angelus was going to investigate his presence in Four Corners once Marsden reported it to the head of his family.

"I hope this works," Giles remarked seated next to Chris. Unlike the gunslinger, Giles was not as calm. They were taking a gamble with this course of action and though he understood the merit of facing their enemy, Giles knew all too well how dangerous a confrontation with Angelus could be. The Watcher chronicles were filled with vampire hunters who thought they could best Angelus and were disastrously wrong.

"Got to know if they're still a threat. We might be lucky, they could have moved on." Chris remarked, even though he did not believe it.

"I don't think we're that lucky," Giles retorted, downing the shot glass of whiskey before him, wishing it was bourbon.

"I thought _I_ was pessimistic," Chris drawled. 

"I have reason to be," Giles replied. "I've seen too many friends die to be anything else."

"I'm sorry," Chris said earnestly, knowing what it was like to lose people.

Suddenly, Spike dropped his cards and shot a gaze towards the door, the gesture was noticed by every one present in the tavern.

"They're here." He remarked and stood up.

"Inez," Chris turned to the lovely Mexican barmaid. "Get out of here now."

The woman nodded quickly, not about to question the gunslinger on such matters. She disappeared out the back room, making her way to the church as instructed earlier.

There was little more than a second of warning before the batwing doors swung open and walking in first was Angelus, followed by William, Darla and Drusilla. They looked like exactly what they were, four aristocrats travelling the Territory but their eyes bore into those present with a predatory gleam that Chris never realized was so powerful until now. The humans in the room stood up, guns unsheathed even though their real weapons were tucked inside their coats. It was all concealed in order to maintain the element of surprise for as much as possible. Chris had almost hoped that the vampires would have taken their exposure as a sign to leave Four Corners but now it appeared that was never going to happen. However, instead of attacking as he had expected them to do when they came calling, Angelus and his family were not making any aggressive moves as they entered the tavern.

"Well you were right William, he does look like you." Angelus remarked as he stared at Spike.

"Hello Angelus," Spike eyed the master vampire cautiously. "Thought you'd be smarter than this and moved on."

"He sounds like you too," Angelus continued to speak to William.

"He isn't me!" William snorted.

"I'm afraid I am, junior." Spike winked at his direction.

"We don't want a fight," Chris Larabee said entering the conversation. The gunslinger strode forward and took up position next to Spike, his gun drawn and ready to fire. "But we will if have to. We know what you are and we know how to kill you."

"So masterful," Darla replied with a cold smile. "I am impressed."

"Aye," Angelus nodded with agreement. "He'd make a fine vampire if he turned."

Chris bristled uncomfortably at this talk of his potential as a vampire. "Never going to happen. The best thing you can do is leave. You take your 'family' with you and go."

"Never going to happen," Angelus glared at him. "We're here to get answers. Where is he?"

"Who?" Spike said innocently. "Bustling town, lots of blokes running in and out of town, faces get mixed up. You know how it is Angelus."

"The gambler," Angelus demanded. "We want the gambler. I want to know what's so important about him that you, if you are indeed William, are willing to fight your own to save."

"Its Spike." Both of the vampires declared hotly.

"I won't ask again." Angelus stared at him hard. "These humans are just that, humans. If I want it from you, you can't stop me from getting it and we'll go through your friends to get the answers if we must."

"Go to hell," Spike snarled.

"Not before you." Angelus returned in kind and came at Spike swinging. 

The peroxide blond vampire ducked the blow easily, catching Angelus arm while throwing a kick that impacted on his side. Heavy combat boots slammed against his ribs and Angelus roared, his face changing into its demonic visage as he staggered back. The rest in his party did the same, launching themselves into the fray as the humans leapt into action. Spike went after Angelus in particular, because he was the strongest of them and the only one present with any hope of defeating the master vampire. Angelus' reaction was immediate once he become accustomed to the unusual manner of William's fighting skills. Obviously he was not facing the minion that had been travelling with recently but a more seasoned and deadly version of Wiliam. Angelus did not understand how this could be but he had no doubt that this was indeed William he was fighting, albeit a more experienced one.

Chris had rushed forward to help Spike when he saw William coming at him. The vampire was far swifter than Chris possibly gave credit and before he knew what was happening, a strong hand was grabbing his throat and lifting him off the floor, his legs dangling wildly over the floor. William's fingers dug into his throat and when Chris stared into his face, he found himself facing the horror that Ezra had when he had saw the demon's true face. Yellow eyes glared back at him as William started choking the life out of him. Chris could feel his vision blur as he saw JD run forward to help him, only to have Drusilla slam her fist into the young man's face and sent him flying across the room. Chris began to gag but he had still presence of mind to bring his foot up, connecting with William's groin. It was not the most dignified way to fight but at least it forced the vampire to release him.

Chris crumpled to the floor as William howled in pain and reached into his duster for the stake hidden there. He knew he was not supposed to kill the vampire but apparently a stake would do considerable harm even if it did not penetrate the heart. It was certainly more effective than bullets anyway. He brandished the stake and went after William who was trying to recoup from the sensitive blow. William recovered quicker than Chris gave him credit and by the time the gunslinger advanced; the vampire was already on his feet. Chris threw a bunch and caught William on the chin and attempted to throw another punch when his blow was deflected by the vampire who hissed at him with fangs bared and pushed him backwards. Chris stumbled a bit and was about to use the stake again when Giles smashed into William's body with his shoulder and sent him to the floor. William glared at Giles and threw a backhanded blow that sent the Watcher into a table, collapsing it with the force of his landing. 

A surge of panic filled Chris when he saw Giles did not move and his fury forced him to attack again; running forward and leaping, ensuring that when he landed it would be on William's knee. The action brought the vampire to his knees as Chris intended and the gunslinger impaled William through the shoulder with the stake in his grip as he attempted to recover. The vampire howled in pain, his teeth glistening as he recoiled in pain, taking the stake with him before Chris could pull it out.

"Spike!" Chris heard one of the female vampires, Drusilla cry out as she saw her lover hurt. 

Her eyes flashed in green fire as she strode towards Chris, with all the fury of hell behind her. Chris searched for a weapon, sweeping the floor as and resting on the broken fragments of table in which Giles was lying quite unconscious. He quickly grabbed a jagged piece of wood and looked up just in time to see Drusilla right on top of him. She grabbed Chris by the neck once more and forced him to straighten up, her eyes glaring at him.

"Be in my eyes," she said staring straight into his eyes and for a moment, Chris felt all the will drain out of his body when he became transfixed by those mesmerizing eyes. He saw her smile an enchanting smile that held much promise. Desire, need and hunger hypnotized him as he stared into her dancing eyes. Chris could feel his mind slipping from his control and he tried to drag his gaze away, fighting desperately to keep himself from becoming her creature.

"Chris!" JD staggered to his feet, blood running down the side of his face. The young man grabbed a chair and brought it against Drusilla's back. The female vampire let out a soft cry and upon releasing her hold of Chris, the gunslinger staggered back, blinking furiously as he tried to regain control of his faculties. 

"Chris!" JD shouted again. "Catch!" 

Almost on reflex, Chris grabbed the small bottle the younger man had thrown at his direction. He caught it with one hand and immediately threw it forcefully against the floor near Drusilla's feet. The bottle shattered spectacularly, sending fragments in all directions, but more importantly, the fluid it contained in a wide spray. The liquid splashed onto Drusilla who squealed loudly as it began to hiss upon contact with her skin. The holy water burned into her and she screamed painfully and fled the scene, her skin sizzling where the fluid had touched her. Chris saw her disappear into the darkness beyond the batwing doors with William calling after her.

"Dru!" He shouted indignantly, still clutching the stake buried in his arm, blood flowing profusely down his sleeve.

Spike saw his younger self screaming at the batwing doors but had no more time to reflect on that because he was locked in a life and death struggle with his grandsire Angelus. Once Angelus learnt he was not dealing with an experienced William but a seasoned Spike; the master vampire altered his plan of attack. He came with Spike with almost ferocious intensity. For each blow that Spike threw, Angelus was there to counter it until they were matching each other, strike for strike. Spike threw repeated kicks at his direction, staggering Angelus who was not used to fighting this way but whom was far from helpless. Angelus strikes were powerful and each one that connected with Spike had the potential to do serious harm. There was no way that this was going to end without one of them killing each other, Spike thought to himself and knew that he had to find someway to end this battle before it came to its bloody conclusion.

It came sooner than he thought when he heard Chris shout at him. "SPIKE!" 

Spike turned to the sounds of the human's voice just in time to see William coming at him with a bloody stake. If the Sunnydale resident had been warned a second later than he was, it might not have mattered. The stake sunk into the soft flesh between his ribs, tearing through his side with enough force to make him scream. The pain was excruciating and he was driven to his knees, seeing through blurry eyes that Angelus was enraged that William had dared to interfere. Spike grit his teeth, trying to stand but the pain was beyond comprehension. Unfortunately, the master vampire was not about to see an opportunity wasted because he closed in for the kill.

He never made it.

"Get back!" Josiah Sanchez somehow appeared between them both, a wooden cross in his hand as he protected Spike from Angelus. "Get back or I'll burn this into your hide!" 

Angelus hissed in fury at the interruption. "This isn't over," his eyes moved across the room, meeting the faces of all the combatants that he now counted as the enemy. "Not by a long shot. We'll find him and then we'll finish this." 

With that, the remaining members of the 'family' swept out of the tavern like an ill wind. 

For a few seconds, no one spoke, as they came to the grips that they had survived the fight, even though Chris had a feeling that it was by the skin of their teeth. The side of JD's face was bleeding. Nathan who had been battling Darla along with Josiah was breathing hard, fear clearly showing in his eyes. Neither the healer or the preacher were hurt and had managed to hold their own against Darla, the oldest of the vampire family. Nathan immediately went to Spike, forgetting that Spike was a vampire who was hurt and needed his expertise. Spike who was a pale specimen to begin appeared almost pasty white now from the loss of blood. His injury was severe even though he was trying hard to hide how much pain he was in. Giles had emerged from his unconscious state and judging by the way JD was helping him to his feet, the Watcher would recover.

"It's alright," Spike tried to fend off the ministrations of the healer when Chris approached. "You can't do nothing for me."

"But you're bleeding!" Nathan protested not to take that as any kind of answer.

"I'm a bloody vampire!" Spike retorted in exasperation. "I'll heal. Just get this damn thing out of me!" He glanced at the stake imbedded firmly between his ribs.

"Spike, listen to Nathan." Chris ordered. "He'll fix you up."

"I get fixed up on my own," Spike grumbled uncomfortably, unaccustomed to being tended to for injuries. Not that he needed it really. Vampires tended to have amazing powers of recuperation.

"At least we beat them," JD exclaimed, trying to see the positive side of things.

"We got lucky," Chris deadpanned. He was aware of just how close the fight had been and knew that they were here thanks to sheer fortune and nothing else. "The next time they come, we may not be as lucky."

"We need help," Spike grunted in pain. "We can't take them on the way we are. It's just the four of them now, I can bet that Angelus _will_ have help the next time they come back."

"You mean more vampires?" JD exclaimed.

"Yeah," Spike nodded, bracing himself for the pain when Nathan yanked out the stake impaled in his body. The vampire growled in pain, his face changing momentarily into his vampiric mask until the agony subsided into something he could tolerate. 

"I'd better get Vin and Buck back here," Chris sighed begrudgingly because he was right.

"No," Giles shook his head, speaking for the first time. He had been a little dazed but had not taken long to regain his faculties. "We need more than just men."

Spike caught on immediately and finished his statement for him. "We need the Slayer." 


	5. Chapter 4

****

Part Four

Buffy

"Stay still!" Nathan Jackson ordered as he continued to undertake the rather taxing job of treating Spike's wounds. The vampire had been less that cooperative, believing that medical treatment of any kind was wasted on him since he was creature of the night that had great recuperative abilities. However, large gapping wounds in the flesh was not something that the healer would tolerate on anyone, even a vampire, and was determined to treat Spike no matter how much he protested.

"It's a bloody waste of time!" Spike rolled his eyes in exasperation, wondering if Nathan had any pit bull terrier in his lineage.

"Listen," the healer glared at him with eyes harder than Spike had seen on some species of hell spawn. "If you don't stay still, you're going to bleed even more! Now you will sit there quietly and let me deal with this or I am going to kill you!" 

Spike stared back and replied with a mischievious smirk, "you're pretty when you're angry." 

"ARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Nathan threw his hand up in frustration. "What am I thinking trying to help this..this...this demon?" The healer ranted. "It make more sense if I signed up for the Ku Klux Klan!"

Spike assumed that would be all the man could tolerate of his behavior and started to rise out of his chair when suddenly Nathan grabbed him by the shoulder and growled with more savagery than any vampire had ever attempted. "Did I say you could go anywhere? Sit your ass back down on that chair!"

"Oh bollocks!" Spike groaned and obeyed, deciding that he better stop being a pain in the neck (no pun intended) before Nathan popped a vessel, though it was nice to know that is ability to kill through sheer annoyance had not diminished one whit in any time. He had begun perfecting the craft for use on Angelus but the opportunity never came.

"Spike, shut up and stop giving Nathan grief!" Chris finally came to the rescue although it had been entertaining to watch. The group had been watching Nathan attempting to patch up Spike ever since their encounter with the vampires in the tavern and could not help being amused by Nathan's escalating temper. When they were hurt, irritating Nathan was one of the games they used to pass the time in the infirmary. Inez had returned to the tavern once the danger had passed and was presently tending to the minor injuries that had been incurred by Chris, JD and Giles.

"Whatever," Spike grumbled supposing that he ought to give the healer a break since the man was trying to help him. Still, Spike always enjoyed taunting people whose buttons were so easy to push and about now, he was missing the slayer very much. 

Chris took another swig of whiskey, allowing it to relax him after the recent episode within the tavern. Even though he had seen Spike turn into a vampire, a part of Chris had been hoping that all this was a mistake, that a quartet of vampires were not trying to kill one of his own in order to prevent a slayer from being born in the future. When Spike and Giles had told them what had brought them to the past, Chris was trapped in ambivalence, unsure of what he ought to feel or how he should act to deal with the situation. After being faced with Spike's younger self and seeing the vampire Angelus, all those illusions had faded and they were faced with a reality that there were more terrifying things in the night then they had possibly imagined, things that could not be stopped with bullets. It shattered the walls of the world Chris Larabee had felt secure in understanding.

"You said we're going to need the slayer," Chris turned to Giles who was holding a wet rag against his forehead. "Mind telling me how that's gonna happen?"

"Well I believe the Slayer of this time period is in Rhodesia." Giles replied.

"That's a long way to come," Josiah remarked frowning.

"We need Buffy." Spike declared over Nathan's shoulder. "Look, she's the only one who's taken us all on and not had her liver handed back to her. The gambler isn't dead yet so she still exists in the future."

"Spike we don't even know that's possible," Giles returned with a frown. "The spell Tara used to bring us here was very specific, I don't think it can be adapted to bring someone here from the future."

"We're gonna have to think of something soon," Chris stated firmly. "Angelus or whatever his name is, will be back, if not tomorrow night then soon. It's more than curiosity with him now, he'll be taking this personally."

"You think so?" Josiah looked at him and hoped he was wrong but then Chris seldom was about such things.

"Yeah," Spike nodded. "The man in black is right on the money. Once Angelus takes anything personally, he won't be let go. He'll finish this, one way or another."

"Damn," Josiah muttered under his breath.

"Hey is there something about the one who was your girlfriend?" JD called out to Spike.

"What do you mean?" The blond vampire returned.

"Well she was looking at Chris real funny, " the younger man reminded. "For a second, he looked kind of out of his head."

"Yeah," Chris nodded, remembering that strange feeling when he had lost all power over himself and was trapped in Drusilla's eyes. If it had not been for JD, he would most likely be dead or worse yet, a vampire. "It was odd. I just couldn't move."

"Dru's got some special mojo," Spike explained, unaware that none of the men present had any idea what mojo meant. "She was like that when she was human. She could see things before they happened and get these feelings about people. When she became a vampire, it still stayed with her. Word of advice, don't look her in the eye."

"You might have told us this before," Chris scowled at him.

"I didn't think you were going to get that close mate," Spike retorted. "So what's the plan Watcher? Are we going to get Buffy or not?"

"We'll have to talk to Tara," Giles said skeptically.

"This girl gonna make that much difference?" Chris asked somewhat dubious about the whole concept of a slayer especially when it was a girl.

"Yes," Giles nodded, not knowing Buffy herself but was knowledgeable enough about the slayer's abilities to be certain that they could use the assistance. Being unable to kill any of the four made it extremely difficult for them to form a decisive plan. They needed an edge and a slayer would provide that. "I believe it would."

"Then we better ride out at first light to my place," Chris sighed, unable to understand how any of this was possible but after what he had seen tonight, he was at least able to accept the impossible to a degree. 

"I want to come with you," Spike stated firmly.

"You can't even stand up," Nathan deadpanned.

Spike ignored him and explained before Chris could say no to him. "Angelus is going to be even more determined to find your friend and I wouldn't underestimate him. You saw what you were up against, you still think you can protect him?"

As much as Chris hated to admit it, he knew that Spike was right. Ezra was hurt and he did not know what Tara was capable of to be certain that she could protect herself in the event Angelus and his family discovered them. Chris had every confidence in Vin and Buck's ability to handle themselves in any situation but this, not when he remembered how close he had come to dying at Drusilla's hands. Spike had managed to defend himself against Angelus and would have continued to do so if it were not for the vicious interference of his past self.

"Alright," Chris conceded to Spike's will on this point. "Nathan as soon as he's patched up, Spike, Giles and I are taking a ride to Ezra's."

"On a horse?" Giles swallowed.

"I don't think he meant convertibles made for men with mid life crises, Rupert." Spike said sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Giles stared at him bewildered.

"Nothing," Spike sniggered to himself. This version of Giles had no idea that his other self would be driving an expensive red convertible that screamed out to everyone who saw it that the man driving it was middle-aged. The only thing that was missing was the bimbo at his arm.

"Yes, horses." Chris said impatiently. "You can't ride?" He looked at Giles with astonishment. He didn't think any man would not have this most basic of skills.

"No, I'm librarian." Giles respond. "I don't usually need to."

"That's alright Watcher," Spike smirked. "We'll find you a nice pony and lead you there."

"Spike," Giles glared at him. "I'd tell you to drop dead but I'm afraid in your case, it's a somewhat redundant gesture."

************

Despite his injury, Spike insisted that they ride immediately to Chris' shack in order to put forward the suggestion to Tara about bringing Buffy back from the past to help them with their predicament. It seemed to make sense in a roundabout way when one remembered that it was her life they were attempting to save as well as the reality that had existed in tandem with it. It had been a long time according to Spike since he had been on a horse but the same analogy that went with riding a bike seemed to apply in this instance. Giles however was uneasy about being astride any animal and Chris kept a close eye on him as they journeyed to his parcel of land. The shack was not too far out of town so he was able to keep their travel at a somewhat leisurely pace and still manage to reach it before sunrise.

They arrived at the shack shortly before dawn and awoke everyone with their presence. Predictably, Ezra had complained about the interruption to his slumber especially in his convalescence. As usual, Chris paid little attention to the gambler's complaints mostly because he was certain Ezra did it to be annoying. Once he had explained what had transpired that night in Four Corners, regarding their confrontation with Angelus and his family, Ezra's complaints subsided and he expressed his gratitude that no one including Spike was hurt. 

"Not that we ain't glad to see you," Vin glanced at Chris after they had all settled down to some breakfast and hot coffee, "any reason that you took all the trouble to ride out here? I reckon Spike there shouldn't be moving on account of him being hurt."

"Tell me about it," Spike muttered as he took the spare cot that Chris had in the house for the rare occasions when Vin or one of the seven dropped by for the night. The injury was starting to heal rapidly and by night it would probably be gone altogether but for the moment, the pain bit at him. 

"We have reason for coming out here," Giles exchanged a brief glance with Chris before turning to Tara. "We need to know if you can do the temporal spell again, Tara."

Tara stared at him. "To do what?" She asked somewhat bewildered. As far as she was concerned, they had accomplished all they needed to do with the time travel spell and should not have to perform it again until it was time to leave. 

"We need the slayer here," Giles explained after a second. "We did not fare well last night and we believe Angelus will be back tonight or tomorrow night perhaps, with minions. We are greatly handicapped by the fact that we cannot harm them for fear of damaging the timeline, however we lack the strength for that. We need the slayer, specifically Buffy. Can the spell be modified for that?"

Tara stiffened with uncertainty. "I don't know," she muttered. "I think it can be but assuming that she's alive in the future, for me to get her back requires specifics I don't have."

"What kind of specifics?" Chris asked.

"Like you understand anything she's saying," Buck retorted.

Chris scowled at him before turning to Tara for an answer. It was true, much of what was being said was so far beyond the boundaries of credibility that he scarcely believed that any of it was being discussed in a serious conversation. However, these were far from ordinary circumstances and after the last 24 hours, he was more inclined to believe in the fantastic no matter how incredible it might seem.

"Well I need to know exactly where she'll be. I'll have to be able to see it in my head so that I can bring her back," Tara explained. "I don't know if I can do that. I mean I've never even met her. I don't know what she looks like."

"That's it then," Chris sighed. "We'll have to do this on our own."

"Unfortunately, it appears that you're right" Giles frowned. "I did not think that we would be able to succeed but I had hoped otherwise. It would have made things less complicated."

"No argument there," Vin nodded in agreement. "Looks like you're going to have to rely on us to keep you alive Ez."

"As much as that would normally comfort me to hear you say that Mr. Tanner, I'm afraid in this instance, I feel as if I should acquaint myself with a wardrobe that includes cloves of garlic, holy water and numerous crucifixes."

"Why can't I do the spell?" Spike suggested.

"What?" Giles stared at him.

"Why can't I do the spell? I know the Slayer, I know what she looks and I sure as hell remember the time and place the last time I saw her. If the Witch helps me with it, why can't I do the spell?"

"Don't call her that," Vin said with an edge to his voice. 

"Its what I always call her," Spike growled. "Come on Witch, what do you say? We can do it, can't we?"

Tara did not answer immediately and felt increasingly uncomfortable with the way all eyes were staring at her, waiting for a response. Her mind whirled at the possibility. It was not possible for Spike to do the spell, he did not have the power that she had to make it work but his offer, had opened up another avenue they might take. She could use him as the conduit to direct her power in the performance of the spell, let his memories find the slayer in the distant future so that she could bring Buffy back to this time. That had some chance of succeeding and it was better than the brick wall of impossibility they had faced a few seconds ago.

"Yeah," she nodded meekly. "We can." 

"Are you sure about this?" Giles gave her a concerned look.

"No," Tara answered honestly. "I've never tried anything like this before so I can't be sure of anything. It might work and then might not. We won't know until we try."

"I suppose we can't ask for more than that," the Watcher sighed in resignation.

"You can do it Tara," Vin said encouragingly, giving her a little smile in the process. 

Tara blushed, unaccustomed to having the attentions of a man aimed in her direction. After being friends with Cordelia for so long, she had grown used to being overlooked when it came to the opposite sex. They seemed to prefer the spectacular radiance of the former cheerleader in comparison to her plain appearance. However, ever since they had been sequestered at the shack protecting Ezra, Tara had noted the consideration the young man was showing her. He ensured that Buck Wilmington, whose aim in life was to charm every woman he met, did not bother her with his usual forward manner. The others said nothing, noting the interest the tracker was showing her but had the good manners not to make mention of it. This however, did not apply to Spike and while the vampire did not say anything out loud, he lapsed into that juvenile bout of sniggering she was at a loss to explain.

"We'll have to do it tonight," Tara spoke in an effort to break the pause that Vin's statement had wrought upon the discussion. 

"That suits me," Spike remarked, easing into the pillow on the cot and closing his eyes. "I'm in no hurry to turn into a crispy critter."

"Alright then," Chris replied, feeling his own weariness taunting him with dreams of sleep and rest. It had been a long night and by the looks of it, Giles and Spike needed the rest almost as much as he did. "We'll get some sleep and deal with this spell or whatever tonight."

"What about Angelus?" Vin asked before they ended the discussion. "He liable to drop in on us?"

"Not until tonight," Chris retorted. "Even if he does, the others know that their best bet tonight is to stay indoors and not get in his crosshairs. Hopefully that will keep them out of our way until you can do this spell of yours to bring the Slayer here."

"What's her name again?" Buck asked.

"Buffy," Giles responded. 

"Buffy," Ezra snorted. "It is a good thing I am unable to disown any progeny of mine for inflicting such a title upon an infant. Imagine naming a child Buffy."

"Well if this thing the little gal's gonna do, works," Buck shifted his gaze at Tara. "You can ask her yourself who named her that."

Tara swallowed thickly as the conversation descended into jokes about Ezra's future as the progenitor of the Slayer, hoping that she would be able to manage what they wanted.

That she could deliver the Slayer.

************

It had been a long time since Angelus felt this kind of fury and hatred. However, now that he was experiencing it, he noted that it gave the demon inside him the edge he needed to plan his next move. His blood boiled with rage as being defeated by one rogue vampire and a bunch of sniveling humans. The family should have been able to kill them all but they had failed because the humans knew what they were dealing with and how to fight them. The leader, the one who had caught Darla's eye and had gone hand to hand with William had rallied them together with enough will to launch a defense that should of all rights been impossible.

It was not in the order of things that the prey should defeat the wolf.

This was to be have been a night of pleasure, a nice of screams and terror, where the blood of the strong would fill his lips and nourish his soul. It was not meant to be defeat and yet in his loss, in the wake of their injuries, Drusilla's burns and William's near staking, he felt himself surging with the salt of challenge. It had been a long time since he had encountered a situation that required his utmost concentration to deal with and Angelus could not help but revel in the possibility. The humans and the strange aberration that was the other Spike had declared war upon him and Angelus was never afraid to fight, as long as he won. 

And he intended to win.

Upon being driven from Four Corners in defeat, Angelus left Darla to deal with William and Drusilla's injuries while he journeyed south. His destination was a town called Purgatorio and he knew it by reputation. It was the kind of place where the worst in human villainy seemed to congregate and he needed that. In the small town near the border of the continental United States and Mexico, Angelus was certain what he would find what he needed in abundance. He and Darla had visited the place once before and they had fed well. Fortunately, a dead body in this town was hardly a novel experience and no one seemed to care very much about corpses found in the street. Most were stripped of their possessions long before questions about their death were asked, if any. His return to Purgatorio had nothing to do with feeding in this instance. 

The humans in Four Corners had thrown down the gauntlet before him. Angelus had no difficulty picking it up. However, he would have them know what it was to challenge him. If they wanted a war, he would give them one and in Purgatorio, he had more than enough bodied to create soldiers for his new found cause. He fed on as many as he could that night. They were easy enough to lure and those who did not come often wander away alone. It was a simple matter to waylay them and during those vulnerable moments and did what he needed to. Some came willingly, not truly understanding what he offered, beyond the gift of immortality. Others resisted but he took them anyway and their blood was always sweeter than those that wanted to die. By the time the sun had begun to rise, he had them sequestered in one place, having paid handsomely for the accommodation that allowed them to continue the turning in peace. He himself was trapped in Purgatorio during the daylight hours but that was fine with him. It had been a long night for him and he needed to rest. 

When the sun set tonight, his minions would awake and they would return to Four Corners and teach the humans who dared to harm him and his family, what it was to die in agony.

**************

Nightfall came too quickly in Chris' opinion. 

During the day, that had been this feeling of safety that wrapped itself around him with its warmth. To see the world in sunshine ensured that the evil that crept in the dark places of night was held at bay, kept powerless by the glimmer of light. But with the inevitable coming of dusk, that security withered away and though their hiding place was meant to be a secret for now, Chris knew what comfort he drew from that was fleeting. It would not be difficult for Angelus to find out where Ezra was, Chris had realized. He did not underestimate the vampire enough to believe that Angelus would not be able to narrow down the possibilities of Ezra's location. All he had to do was question someone who lived in the town.

Ezra had insisted on remaining at the shack tonight, much to the gunslinger's annoyance but Chris could not find it in his heart to deny the man. Instead, he summoned the rest of the seven to the shack, hoping the increased numbers would aid in protecting the gambler in case Angelus and his company did learn where he was. He could understand Ezra's desire to stay and supposed that if it were his descendant about to be conjured up in a spell, he would want to stay to meet her. Besides, Ezra seemed a great deal healthier than he was two nights ago while Spike's injuries had disappeared all together. He had not lied about the vampire's powers of recuperation because the wound that had given Nathan so much concern earlier was no longer visible on his skin.

Now, they stood watching as Tara and Spike sat within the circle she had created from the contents of the bag she had brought from the future. The seven and Giles stood within the small clearing of trees near the shack watching the spell being invoked. Tara and Spike were sitting on the ground, legs crossed and facing each other. Their hands joined as a thin black candle illuminated their small space .Chris understood nothing of what was transpiring, aware that something was happening that was beyond his comprehension but he was somehow accepting as being real. The young woman who was shy and prone to stammering whenever anyone spoke to her seemed different now. If Chris had to put a word to it, he would say she felt radiant.

Chris glanced at Vin next to him and saw the tracker's face etched with concern. It was not easy for Vin Tanner to show his feelings. Even though he was just shy of his thirties, he was wiser than most people his age. His blue eyes saw a lot and were much older than he appeared to be. Somehow through the course of his life, Vin had learnt to guard his emotions while Chris had forced his behind a wall because of grief and despair of having lost a wife and child. 

Together they had formed a bond of friendship, far stronger than the attachments that kept the seven together. He knew, with the same kind of insight that made spells and vampires possible, that Vin would be at his side always, no matter what turns their lives took. That is why he knew that Vin cared for the girl Tara more than he should. It worried Chris because anything between them was impossible and when Vin fell for any female, he usually did so with his hart worn on his sleeve. He would be hurt deeply because when this was all over, assuming that they survived that is, she would have to leave. And that departure would break the tracker's heart if his feelings for Tara were as far along as Chris suspected.

Chris turned back to Tara when the young woman began to chant and noted that the rest of his companions were just as transfixed as he by her words, dipped in enigma, laced with all things unreal. Even her voice seemed to change, for there was none of that uncertainty but a power that was as old as time, perhaps even older than men. It was a power that was uniquely female, a presence the Indians might call as Mother Earth making herself known to all. Even Spike seemed transfixed by her words.

Suddenly, Tara's eyes opened and she stared at Spike directly; her eyes were completely black. There was no iris, not whites, nothing but a soul crushing darkness that sent shivers of fear through all the men present. The hands holding Spike's clenched and her veins began to throb on her neck and her wrists with such force that they could see it against her pale skin. Chris saw Vin reacting, wanting to stop this but instinctively, he knew that the spell had gone too far for that and he grabbed the tracker before he did anything to interfere. Vin looked at Chris in question and all Chris could do was stare at him stricken, before shaking his head in an order to desist. Vin stared at her and suddenly a furious wind appeared out of nowhere, blowing like a powerful gale as leaves and dust started hurtling through the air. 

"What the hell is happening?" Buck demanded, the fear in his voice was clear.

"Stay where you are!" Chris shouted over the sound of the gale. "Don't do anything."

"It's the spell," Giles struggled to explain as he held his glasses to his face. 

Spike had started to cry out because Tara's nails were digging into his skin, her finger nails impaled his flesh and drew blood. It ran in rivulets down his pale skin, hissing into the candle as it dribbled. However, the vampire did not pull away and seemed to be enduring the pain. His head was thrown back and his face had changed to its demon mask, with fangs bared and yellow eyes wide with agony. It was more than just her fingers that was causing his pain, Chris realized. Something else was happening.

The air became charged with electricity and the first clap of thunder roared through the air. They had not seen the lighting come before it and the sound repeated itself, growing louder until they could hear nothing else, not even the violent wind blowing around them. 

But they could still her the words.

__

"If I command the stars, they will fall; 

If I see inside the mind of the undead, I will make his thoughts real 

If I see the one to whom his heart belongs, I will make her appear, 

And if she were lost in time, I will bring her through the mist.

I call to thee, Goddess of the Three, 

Tisiphone, Alecto and Magaera,

Listen to your daughter's call, 

In the eye of the undead, 

Find the one, who is endless,

Find her, whose soul does not die, 

Bring to us the chosen 

I call upon thee as a daughter of the moon

Bring forth the Slayer!

**********

When Angelus returned to Four Corners that night, he was not alone. He had been poised for the sunset as and soon at it had disappeared past the horizon; he had been ready to move. Not all that he had killed had risen in time but he knew that it would. It mattered little anyway, he had more than enough minions he needed for the night's excursion and as for information, that was not entirely a problem either. Since his arrival in Four Corners, he had developed an interest in the lovely editor of the Clarion News. The young widow with the cascading blond hair was a strong determined woman who not only spoke for the community in her journal but also wielded considerable weight in the community. He had marveled at how a delicate lady of breeding could find content in such frontier surroundings and began to imagine how it would be to deconstruct her existence before he turned her.

He had spent numerous nights at her window, watching her contently and sketching her loveliness so that he could study her closely in the hours when he could not be with her, as he liked. He was preparing to insinuate himself into her life when William had made his indiscretion with Ezra Standish and destroyed any chance of that. Nevertheless, Angelus had not forgotten her and in light of the situation he was now faced with, he realized that while he may not be able to play his mind games with her, she more than anyone would have the information that he needed to find the gambler. Angelus knew that the human Larabee had some feeling for the woman called Mary Travis. He knew it because in the rare occasions that he had observed them together, he could feel the heat of their emotions for one another. Both were so afraid of what they felt for each other that it was almost painful too watch. Sometimes, the naivete of the human species was unbelievable.

He wondered if Larabee had warned her and decided that it mattered not. 

**********

Mary Travis heard her door knock and wondered who it could be as she went to answer it. Chris had warned her about inviting any strangers into her house before he had left town this afternoon and though he would not tell her why, Mary was certain that there was genuine fear in his voice when he gave her the warning. Chris was not usually the kind of man who fretted over nothing and though she hated it when he gave her orders, because he was just the gunslinger who protected the town, not her lord and master, she found herself heeding his advice. After all, anything that frightened Chris Larabee, should frighten her if she had any sense at all.

She did wish he had told her what concerned him so much now that she approached the back door of the house. Her visitor whomever he was had knocked on her kitchen door which suggested to her some familiarity since most of her callers, chose to knock at the front door. Mary wondered if perhaps Chris had ridden back to town and supposed that was entirely possible, after all she did not keep tabs on him despite everyone's belief that there was something between them. In truth, they had a friendship born of mutual trust and respect, everything else was mere innuendo by those who believed a man and woman could not have a relationship did not have something to with romantic emotions.

Not that she would mind that of course but Chris Larabee had a tendency to make her want to slam her head against a brick wall and that was not entirely the best basis for a relationship. Though some had argued that the line between love and war was painfully thin and one day, she could make the crossing into some great unknown. Mary tried not to think about such things because she liked her future being a surprise and if there was anything meant to be between her and Chris, she supposed she would find out soon enough. There was no point driving herself insane, trying to get a head start on fate. Swinging open the door, she found her perceptions on everything she knew shatter in an instant.

The man standing before her was not a man. His face was contorted with ridges and fangs, his yellow eyes glared at her with malevolence and his expression was one of such ferocious need that Mary might have screamed. However, she didn't. She could not when the creature before her was holding a young woman in his arms. Mary recognized her as one of the saloon girls that worked at Digger Dan's Saloon. The man, Mary observed and then recanted, no he wasn't a man. He was, she searched the description she had read in a book of folklore once, a vampire_. Nosferatu!_ Her mind screamed the word but the logical part of her balked at the suggestion because Romanian mythology was just that, mythology; it had no basis in fact. Yet the journalist in her, the one who reported what she saw, knew that what was before her was no myth, it was real and it was baring its fangs, ready to rip the girl throat out in front of her.

"Hello Mary," Angelus smiled, keeping the saloon girl firmly in his grip, her head yanked back exposing her bare neck, she whimpered in fear but her terror was inconsequential to the rest of the play he just put in motion.

Mary wanted to scream at the fact that he knew her name but she did not. She remained frozen, wanting to help the girl in her grip but had no way of doing so.

"I guess by the look on your face, your man didn't tell you about me?" Angelus taunted.

Chris, Mary thought nervously. He meant Chris. "What are you?"

"What do you think I am?" He grinned and then ran his tongue along the saloon girl's neck. 

"Let her go," Mary said impotently. She had had no weapon. Nothing that she could use against a creature like this. Her eyes darted to her kitchen and she searched the room for a knife before realizing that it would do no good to her.

"I might be convinced to," he replied, amused by her gumption at making a demand she had absolutely no chance of getting. "If you're willing to give me what I want."

Mary's eyes widened at the possibility at what he might want from her but the life of the girl in his arms made her ask nonetheless. "What do you want?"

"Nothing so terrible as you might think," he chuckled, guessing what she had thought first. "Just a little information."

"What kind of information?" Mary asked again. She wondered what information she possessed that this creature was willing to murder to acquire.

"I want to know where the gambler that rides with Larabee is," Angelus stared at her hard.

Ezra? Why did this creature want Ezra? "If he isn't in town," Mary stammered. "I don't know where else he could be."

"You disappoint me Mary," Angelus glared at her, his teeth starting to graze the helpless girl's throat, drawing a cry of fear from her quivering lips. "I thought you were smarter than that. Don't make me take a bite now. I'm not particularly hungry but I will kill her if you don't tell me what I need to know." 

"I don't know what you want!" Mary cried out in exasperation. The terrified expression on the girl's face burned into her memory and yet she remained frozen in her doorway because she knew something about the legends regarding these creatures and that it was her best protection. She hated her cowardice at not daring to cross that threshold but she could do nothing else. 

"Where would your darling man hide the gambler?" Angelus demanded again. This time there was no taunting in his voice, just ruthless determination. 

Mary thought quickly, hating to betray Chris but she had no choice She was in a corner and she knew it. She prayed that Chris knew what he was doing that he was able to protect himself far better than this girl Angelus had could. "Let her go and I'll tell you." Mary spoke finally.

"I don't think so." Angelus retorted.

"You don't have a choice!" Mary snapped, wondering where her courage had come from and whether or not she was insane exercising it with this creature of the night. "You want your information, I want her freed! If you think I'm stupid enough to tell you and rely on your honesty to let her go, then you have another thing coming!" 

Angelus considered her words, the girl was not important enough for him to care whether or not she lived or died. However, he did not underestimate Mary either. Angelus moved his lips away from the girl's throat and walked her forward to Mary's door. "I'll give her to you at the same time you give me your information."

They neared her door and for a brief moment, Mary thought that the legends were false that he might be able to breach her home. She felt her blood rushing through her heart like a tidal wave and could tell by his widening smile that he sensed her fear. She did not care. Anyone who was not afraid of him was a fool. Angelus paused at her doorstep, where he was almost inches away from her. Mary reached out her hand and looked at the young woman in his grip. 

"Take my hand," she instructed.

Trembling, the girl raised her arm and Mary clenched her fist around her wrist. Angelus still had let her go but Mary had no doubt that he was swift enough to retrieve her. However, there was no more time to delay. She had to give him his answer now.

"If they are anywhere," Mary swallowed, "it's at Chris' shack. Its not far from here, about an hours ride north of here."

No sooner than she said that, she yanked the young woman through the doorway and noticed that Angelus had made no move to stop her from doing so. He could sense from her fear that she was telling the truth and so he felt he could be magnanimous on this occasion. Besides, he had plans for Mary Travis and killing her right now, despite the protection of her home could wait. He had to admire her courage though and understood what it was that drew Larabee, though the fool was too proud to admit it. The saloon girl whose name he never quite got was being held by Mary now, as she wept her relief to be freed.

"You got what you want!" Mary hissed. "Now get away from us!"

"Thank you Mary," the vampire smiled at her. "You've been most cooperative. I'm taking my leave now cause it serves me to but I'll be back soon enough. You can count on it."

And with that, he was gone, leaving Mary standing in the doorway, shaking so hard she thought she might faint. However, she regained her composure quickly enough. She had to. Chris was in danger.

She had to warn him.

************

There was a terrific explosion of sound and energy. 

It was as if lightning had ruptured in the sky. Chris saw the flash of blinding white light flare to life over Tara and Spike's circle, the power of it flowing outwards in all directions. The seven dropped to their feet trying to avoid its outpour. Their ears rang with the noise it generated and as it washed past him, there was heat and all things unearthly impacting against their skin. It was a strange tingling sensation that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. When it swept past them however, the gale and the noise ceased abruptly. Chris raised his eyes from the ground, just in time to see the candle between Tara and Spike blow out. Somehow through all the wind and chaos, it had managed to remain alight. Tara slumped forward once its light had diminished. Although he appeared almost as exhausted as she, Spike managed to catch her before she hit the dirt. Vin was on his feet and at her side in a few seconds. Spike seemed to be glad to relinquish the hold on her because his own energy had been drained during the ritual and he allowed Vin to take Tara in his arms.

"Tara," Vin called out. "Tara, come darling, wake up!"

Nathan hurried to Tara and immediately checked her pulse to make a more medical examination. "She's alive," he stated. "Pretty weak though. "

"The process is exhausting," Giles explained as he looked on in concern. "She was like this when we arrived here."

"Did the spell work?" Ezra inquired, looking around them and seeing nothing out of the ordinary once the gale and thunder had disappeared. There was certainly no sign of the Slayer.

"I'm not sure," Spike answered wearily. "She's the expert."

Suddenly, something in the slight breeze caught Spike's attention. "Oh bloody hell."

He never had a chance to finish the sentence because bursting out of the clearing was Angelus and at least a dozen minions. Spike scrambled to his feet, his body aching from the effects of the spell but they had trouble in every way possible and he had to be ready to fight. The rest of the humans with him had also turned to face the vampires before them and Spike hope they were able to handle himself because he was going to have enough trouble keeping himself alive. He studied the minions around them and knew that they were newly created for the purpose of this confrontation.

"Vin, Giles get the girl to the shack!" Chris ordered. "You too Ezra!" 

Vin nodded quickly, scooping Tara in his arms and running towards the trees that frame the clearing. Giles followed him as the others fanned out to deal with any vampires that might try to follow them. Ezra on the other hand was not eager to leave his friends behind at all. Vin had taken the girl to safety because it was necessary but Ezra was not about to let someone else fight his battles, no matter what kind of enemy wanted him dead.

"If you do not mind Mr. Larabee," Ezra said firmly. "I think I shall remain."

"This ain't a negotiation Ezra," Chris barked. "GET GOING!"

"So this is Ezra," Angelus looked at the gambler in interest. "You're a pretty important fellow aren't you? Mind telling me why?"

"I thinks it because of my contribution to the gambling institution in this country," Ezra deadpanned.

"Why don't you sod off Angelus," Spike placed himself between Ezra and Angelus who was slowly inching towards the gambler. "There's no way you're getting your hands on him."

"I have more than enough companions here to ensure I do," Angelus retorted, glancing at the minions standing by him, waiting for the order to attack.

"They're young and bloody stupid I wager," he studied them closely. "Where did you get them? At the local saloon?"

"You never could beat me Spike," Angelus retorted. "What makes you think you're going to do so now?"

"Because I'm not as young as you think," Spike glared at him. 

"I noticed but its not going to change anything." With that Angelus launched himself at Spike and his minions did the same to the rest of the seven.

Chris' first thought was to go after Ezra and get him to the shack, even if he had to be dragged there kicking and screaming. Inside the house, Ezra had some measure of protection from the vampires that wanted to kill him. If the gambler remained to fight at their side as noble as that effort might seem, he was only going to get himself killed. Chris strode towards the gambler when suddenly he was knocked to the ground by one of Angelus' vampires. He reacted swiftly, throwing a fist over the face that was lunging for his neck. Throwing the vampire off him, Chris scrambled to his feet and threw another backhanded blow at the creature. The vampire stumbled back and the gunslinger got to his feet, reaching inside his coat for the stake that had become just as important to him in the past day as he gun. He flung the stake forward and caught the creature in the heart. The vampire shrieked in pain before exploding into dust before Chris' astonished eyes.

Ezra saw Spike fighting Angelus and wondered whether or not Chris advice should be taken and that he should run to safety. However, he had run once before when the group had needed him and it was a shame he still had not managed to live down. Ezra could never do that again. Suddenly he heard Buck screaming and saw that the big man was desperately trying to reach JD even though he was having troubles of his own with a vampire that was determined to kill him. JD was fighting hard but his demon opponent had the advantage and it a few seconds it would not matter any more. Ezra ran forward and tore JD out of the creature's hold. The vampire snarled at him in fury as JD fell to the ground, panting hard as he clutched his neck. The gambler who had been in possession of holy water since his had all began, threw the small vial of fluid into the vampire's face. Glass shattered and the contents of the vial hissed into the demon's skin. The fluid's potency against the creature was like acid and a scre am ran through the night.

Ezra did not have time to savor the victory because something big slammed into his side and knocking the wind out of him. Ezra felt the stitches in his throat rip at the fall and he could feel warm flood flowing from the wound, staining the collar of his shirt. The sight of blood seemed to send the vampire about to kill him into something of a frenzy and Ezra felt himself being lifted by the arm with such force that his shoulder popped. He let out a cry and tried to fight back but the vampire was too strong for him. With a sinking feeling, he realised that he should have run when Chris told him. Because of this stupid sense of honor, which had never been a problem before, he was going to get himself killed and with him, doom the future that needed his survival so badly. Suddenly, something happened. He felt himself released and he felt heavily onto the grass. It appeared the vampire had forgotten him and as Ezra scrambled to his feet, clutching his wounded neck, he realised why. 

She was young. She could not be anymore than twenty if that and her clothes were nothing he had ever recognized as fashion or appropriate for a young woman. However, without any doubt, Ezra knew he was looking at the Slayer.

She had grabbed the vampire that had almost ended his life and flung him halfway across the clearing. The others realizing that there was a new player in the game immediately left the other humans and went after the girl. They hoped to overwhelm her with numbers. They were in for a surprise. Ezra rose to his feet and went to join the rest of the seven who were staring with amazement as she fought the demons with almost effortless skill. She was almost graceful. Her movements were fluid. When she fought, she did not merely use her fists but her whole body. She spun in the air, kicked high, twisted her body and sent blows that dropped the enemy with brutal force. They watched her stake the vampires that came after her, one by one, watched them explode into nothingness, with her barely raising an eye. 

"We should probably help her." Ezra managed to say.

"I think we'd only get in her way," JD stammered looking at the young woman in nothing less than awe. She caught a fist in her hand before twisting it so hard that the arm and ultimately the body that it was attached to spun around in the air and landed heavily on its back. She dropped to one knee in a swift movement, plunging the stake that had been sharpened and worn from use into the vampire's breast and reduced it to dust.

Another vampire came up behind her and this time she had help, Chris had run forward and slammed his fist into the vampire's face. The creature snarled at him and took a step toward the gunslinger when suddenly he exploded into nothingness in front of Chris. In its place was the slayer, holding the stake she had used to vanquish the demon. She raised her eyes to him about to say something along the lines of thank you when suddenly the expression on her face changed.

"DUCK!" She shouted.

Chris dropped to his knees just as the slayer hurled her stake overhead. Chris shifted his gaze slightly and saw it imbedded in the vampire that had tried to sneak up behind him. It howled as the stake struck home and like its other demonic brethren made its death in a dusty end. Chris looked around and saw that the minions were gone, she had killed all the vampires that converged upon her so hungrily but the danger was by no means over. In their efforts to stay alive, they had forgotten that Spike was battling Angelus alone. Both master vampires were still battling each other in a fierce combat but it appeared that the toll of performing the spell that had brought the slayer here had placed Spike in a decided disadvantage. He was managing to stave off death but it was clear that he was being worn down.

The slayer did not waste time with words for she assessed the situation quickly enough. She bolted past them and leapt into the air to deliver a flying kick into the sternum of the vampire that was giving Spike so much trouble. Angelus snarled in fury as he was sent sprawling and when she landed, Spike was at last given indication that the spell had worked. 

"Buffy!" Spike exclaimed with genuine joy in his face.

"What's with you?" She asked. "You're supposed to be the Big Bad, how long does it take you to dust one vamp?" 

"Take a closer look Slayer," Spike grumbled, reminded now of why he lingered in the nexus between loving her and wanting to snap her neck. She was charming as ever.

Buffy turned to face the vampire she was fighting and found her face melting with astonishment. "Angel?" She stammered.

The vampire stared at her in confusion because the new arrival was looking at him with familiarity. He did not understand it but he did feel the strength emanating off her. She was exceedingly powerful this one and that kind of force could only mean one thing; she was a Slayer. He also realised that he was by himself, that the minions he had spent the last 24 hours cultivating were all dead. No doubt at her hands. Angelus did not like the odds and he needed to regroup. It was time to make a strategic withdrawal. Furious that he was going to taste defeat or worse if he remained, Angelus did the only thing he could do at this point. 

He ran.

Spike let out a sigh of relief when he saw Angelus leave because his energy reserves were exhausted. The spell had depleted him considerably and he had been on the ragged edge of his limits when he had battled the vampire. It had taken every ounce of strength to prevail and hold off an unfortunate demise but none of that matter now because Buffy was alive and she was back. Before he even questioned the sanity of it, he had bundled her in his arms and kissed her passionately. Her felt her lips open for him, questing and exploring his own before she stiffened in his arms and shoved him away. That was follow by a swift punch on the jaw.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!" She demanded as she looked around her surroundings and the men who she had just saved by her arrival.

"Good to see you too Slayer," Spike frowned as he rubbed his chin as he looked up at her from the ground.

"Spike," she rested her hand on her hips and stared at him. "What's going on! One minute we were fighting like we always do and the next thing I know, I'm in the woods! Woods I don't know! And what's with all these guys? Is the rodeo in town or what? What's with the cowboy look?"

"The cowboy look?" Chris asked. It better not be him she was talking about.

"Yeah," Buffy turned to him. "You, with the man in black thing. Although none of the westerns I've seen had the guy in black being such a hottie." 

A crooked smile crossed her lips as she studied Chris in a way that made him one to blush for some reason. "What's a hottie?" He looked at Spike questioningly.

"Nothing you ought to be worrying about," Spike rose to his feet and growled, suddenly feeling very territorial about Buffy.

"Spike," Buffy took a deep breath, staring at him impatiently. "It's been a long night, I want to go home and get a bath. I have homework to help Dawn with and a very depressed Willow to console. Whatever this is, get us out of it or I'll have to hurt you and why is Angelus here? Did something happen to Angel?"

"This is the Slayer?" Ezra looked at Spike skeptically.

"Yes!" Buffy threw up her hands. "I am the Slayer and you are obviously a reject from Maverick! What the hell is going on?"

Spike stifled a laugh but had to remark wit a smirk across his face, "isn't it lovely to know that you're related to her?"

"Related?" Buffy exclaimed and stared at Ezra. "What are you talking.about?"

"Buffy Summers," Spike patted her on the back. "Meet your great, great, great, couple more greats, great grandfather, Ezra Standish."

"My what?" She stared at Ezra in astonishment and realised that he did sort of look familiar. It took her a second to remember why. He looked a little like her mom.

"Remember the demon?" Spike leaned closer to her ear as she and Ezra continued to stare at each other. "The one who was pretty mad that I saved your ass?"

"You didn't save my ass!" Buffy shot him a look.

"She sure can cuss," JD pointed out.

"Stuff it Junior!" She barked in annoyance. Buffy who had no idea where she was, was never a happy Buffy.

"Charming too," Josiah grinned. 

"Must get that part from Ezra." Buck said sweetly.

"Nothing in this girl's manner comes from me!" Ezra declared. "I am certainly more polished!"

"Hey!" Buffy glared at him. "Be nice, I just saved _all_ your butts! Now I'm usually a pretty calm person but I'm extremely confused right now and if someone and I mean some _undead_ someone doesn't explain himself to me right this second, I will stake him!" She turn to Spike and hissed with narrowed eyes. "No matter how good he kisses!" 

Spike took in a deep breath and beckoned her close before he responded, "so you admit I'm a good kisser?"

Buffy hit him again.


	6. Chapter 5

****

Part Five

Interlude

Buffy thought waking up in a coffin had been bizarre and disorientating however, this had the potential to be almost as peculiar.

She knew for a fact that she was not in Sunnydale. The last thing she had remembered before appearing in these unfamiliar woods was facing the demon Chronozon with Spike. She had been standing in the middle of the cemetery with the vampire when suddenly; she materialized into a strange place with no memory of having been whisked away. Her first thought upon arriving was to investigate and in the course of all that, she had come across a group of men fighting for their lives against a cadre of vampires. Naturally, whenever anything pesky or tedious was going astray with her existence, Spike was almost always in the thick of it. If things were not complicated enough, it appeared that somehow in this mess that she had yet to unravel, was Angelus, the vampire her former lover Angel had been prior to the curse that had seen his soul returned to him.

"Stop hitting me!" Spike barked at her. 

"Stop being a pain in the ass!" She returned sharply. When she was confused, she was particularly temperamental. "Tell me what's happening?"

"If you bloody calmed down, I would Slayer!" He snapped.

"Jesus Christ," Buck Wilmington groaned in exasperation at the display by too seemingly adults. "You two sound like you're married!"

That silenced both of them immediately.

"Chris you want to handle this?" Buck stared at the gunslinger that appeared in the midst of trying to sneak away without being discovered.

"Not really," Chris sighed, suddenly having this massive headache coming over him. "I was kind of hoping to ride to Purgatory and go on a drinking binge for a couple of days to forget any of this is happening."

"Oh great, so we're getting the lush to explain things to me?" Buffy stared at the men impatiently.

"Let me get this straight," Chris glared at her and offered Spike a wholly sympathetically look. "This is the girl you're in love with?"

"What are you the town crier? Do you have to tell everybody?" Buffy threw her hands up in frustration. "What's next, a full page ad?"

Spike started to swear a litany of curses under his breath and walked away before he said any of them aloud since it would probably get him punched again for it. As he drifted away, Buffy was certain she heard him curse 'bloody women!' 

"This _is_ the Slayer?" Ezra said not at all impressed because the girl for all her physical abilities was rather shrewish, although he had to confess that she did sort of remind him of Maude. That alone was enough to make him want to accompany Chris to Purgatory for that drinking binge. "This is my descendant?"

"What are you talking about?" Buffy groaned. "Are you telling me that this is for real? that I'm in the past?"

"Yes Buffy," Giles stepped out of the darkness, having come to discover the welfare of the others once Vin had taken Tara to safety and stumbled upon the rapidly deteriorating discussion the slayer was having with the seven men. "That's exactly what's happened."

An amazing thing happened when the slayer saw the Englishman. Her discontented expression evaporated and her face exploded into a radiant smile that reflected the beauty and the heart that the vampire Spike so obviously loved. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Giles with nothing less than sheer delight. "Giles? Is that really you?"

"Yes," Giles returned her ecstatic expression with one of gentle caution. 

"Oh Giles!" Buffy did not hesitate to run to him, wrapping her around the Watcher in a warm embrace that reeked of joy and gratitude. She hugged him hard, never thinking it could be so good to see her old friend again and in some respects the man who was more her father to her than her real one every tried to be. "I knew you'd come back! I knew you'd come if I was in trouble! I'm so glad to see you!!"

"Buffy," Giles was rather taken back by her display. By definition, Watchers and Slayers were meant to be close but not so close that the girl should be _this_ happy to see him. However, Giles did recall what Spike had told him about his counterpart's relationship with his slayer, that there was almost paternal affection in how he regarded the Slayer. It was evident in her reaction to his being here that the vampire had not lied about that and their feelings for one another ran very deep.

"Buffy," he pushed her gently away, "I'm not your Giles."

"What?" She stared at him in bewilderment, unable to process it at first. "What do you mean?"

"Perhaps we ought to discuss this in the house," Giles cast his gaze at the other men present. "We certainly don't want Angelus and his minions to return and catch us unawares."

"Fine by me," Chris replied, "I could use that bottle I've got hiding away about now."

********

Spike wondered if he was better off in that world where Master was alive and he was the Big Bad once again. Certainly, it would be more dignified then remaining by the Slayer's side, accepting the crumbs she threw at him occasionally and breaking his heart every time he gave her the chance. He had been so happy to see her again that he had forgotten how it was with them. That to her, he was merely a convenience, not someone that could ever care about him the way he did her. When she was gone, all he could think about was getting her back and now that she was returned to him, he realized that she was never his to get back in the first place and it hurt remembering that.

"You okay?" Chris asked quietly as Giles explained things to Buffy much to her astonishment.

Spike met the gunslinger's gaze, somewhat surprised by the inquiry. "Yeah, I'm bloody charming."

"She's quite something," Chris remarked, glancing at the spirited young woman briefly before turning back to Spike. "I guess things between you aren't mutual."

"Only when she feels like it," he said bitterly but was not about to elaborate any further. He could have easily told Larabee that he and Buffy had made love, that they had shared a night of searing passion only to have her discard it and him the morning after. She had vowed to kill him if he told anyone, never thinking that the mere suggestion had hurt him as much as the rest of the things she had said to him. "I'm a moron for wanting her, a bloody, lovesick moron." 

Chris took a swig out of the bottle he was holding and handed it to the vampire. "I think you could use some of this."

A little smile crossed Spike's lips at the gesture and he accepted the bottle and took a deep gulp and handed it back to the gunslinger. "Sooner we get back to our time the better. At least things make some crazy sense there. In this time, we're displaced. I can't help looking at who I used to be and not feel a little sad that it's all gone. I envy William a little I guess, he's got it all too look forward to and I," he paused a moment to collect his thoughts, "I don't."

There was real pain in his eyes and Chris wished he knew the words that might make it all better but in truth, this vampire had lived a life longer than his ever could and he doubted that there was very much that Spike could not handle, even this. However, there were times when what one needed most above all else including advice or sympathy, was just one person who was willing to listen and understand. When Sarah and Adam had died, Buck had been that person for him. Unfortunately, it would take more than listening for Spike to feel better, it would require the young slayer admitting something she found utterly unimaginable at this time, if she even felt it at all and that she might care for Spike.

"So you're telling me that Chronozon's revenge on Spike is erasing me from existence?" Buffy exclaimed with no small measure of dismay.

"If what Spike tells me about him is true, yes." Giles nodded. "In the world I'm from, you were never the Slayer or born for that matter. The slayer that came to Sunnydale was Kendra and Spike killed her. At least the Spike from our world."

Despite how unbelievable it sounded, Buffy believed Giles when he explained the reality of her situation. Had it been anyone else, she would not have accepted it but something inside of her was incapable of distrusting Giles. Even though he was not from the world she knew and had never laid eyes upon her before this night, Buffy still thought of him as her Giles and she could not believe that he would ever lie to her. However, if this was real, if she was indeed in the past, then Buffy was facing an entirely new threat and she was uncertain how to handle it. 

"Spike didn't kill her," Buffy countered once her thoughts returned her to the present conversation. "Drusilla killed her when Angelus tried to awaken Acathala." 

"That's not how we remember it," Giles explained, aware that in her mind many things would be different. A part of Giles had difficulty believing that Angelus would become his trusted friend and protege but apparently, Buffy's memories of Angel's time in Sunnydale were very different indeed.. "A great deal differs from your reckoning and ours. However, we do know that it all stems from Mr. Standish not being killed approximately two nights ago."

"My grandfather's name was Ezra," Buffy muttered, staring Ezra in the face for the first time since Giles had told her the truth about whom the gambler was. A part of her wanted to rebel at the thought that she was related to this man who sounded like something out of a Gone with the Wind movie but she knew it was the truth. She looked into his eyes and she saw Joyce. It was almost painful to do so because it reminded her that Joyce was gone and she could never look into her eyes again. "He died when I was about ten but it's supposed to be a family name I think." She offered after a moment, her head spinning a little.

"Well I'm grateful some members of my future progeny had sense in naming their children," Ezra retorted feeling just as uncomfortable by the way she was staring at him and could only express himself with a glib remark.. "Might I ask what sort of a name is Buffy?"

Buffy shot him a venomous look through narrow eyes, "you know I can still break your bones, I don't have to kill you for that."

"Mind your elders luv," Spike who was still seated next to Chris remarked sarcastically.

Buffy turned on him remembering that he was the cause of all this and was the appropriate person upon whom to vent her anger. "This is entirely your fault! If you didn't help me, none of this would have happened!"

"Oh bloody hell, not this again," Spike groaned in exasperation and rolled his eyes, wondering what he had been thinking when he had embarked upon this insane quest to save her. It was not as if she would be grateful, just her usual antagonistic self.. "If I hadn't help you kill him you'd still be wondering whether or not it was right to kill a human and Chronozon would have caused hell on Earth! Did it occur to you that my being able to kill him means he wasn't bloody human any more! He was a bloody demon! Once again, I show myself to be the biggest traitor in the demon world by killing him and all you can do is bitch about it. Who knew that bastard was going to take it so personally? I thought if he was going to take revenge on me he'd do something less extreme, like killing me! Although biting the big one would sure as hell be better then listening to you bitch like some stupid cow!"

"I'll have you know that cows do not bitch and you're not the only one who was wishing he didn't kill you either!" She shouted back angrily. However, Buffy was unable to deny that perhaps she was feeling a little guilty about taking out her anger on him. 

"ALRIGHT KNOCK IT OFF THE BOTH OF YOU!!" Chris Larabee roared in a voice that demanded silence and obedience in immediate proportions because he had just about as much of this bickering as he could take. He had shot people for less in the past.

"That took a lot longer than I thought," Buck remarked with a big grin as he stared at his old friend.

"At least a minute longer than I thought it was," Nathan added with the same flippancy as Chris smoldered.

"I was actually giving him another two minutes," Vin added.

"Boys," Josiah, ever the voice of reason chose to advise. "This might not be the best time for this."

Being on the receiving end of the infamous Larabee glare seemed to indicate that the former preacher might be right and the three men immediately fell silent and allowed their leader to continue his tirade.

Once Chris had ensured no more flippant remarks from his comrades in arms, he turned to the visitors from Sunnydale with an expression that could only be called stormy. Leanign forward, he fixed his steely gaze on both Buffy and Spike. "You, Slayer, calm the hell down and Spike, get back in your corner and stop snaking her."

"Thank you," Giles said gratefully and thinking to himself that Chris could teach Angel a thing or two about presence, "couldn't have said it better myself."

"Giles!" Buffy pouted feeling a little betrayed by that crack. "You're supposed to be my Watcher!"

"And I'm being a responsible one by reminding you that at this time, we have bigger problems then whose fault this is. Right now, we have Angelus, Darla, Drusilla and this time period's version of Spike in Four Corners desiring to get their hands on Mr. Standish because of our determination to keep him alive."

"Got ya," Buffy sighed and had to concede that Giles and the hottie were right. Even Spike seemed to agree and had returned to his corner so to speak, bringing the room to some semblance of order once again. "So we got four of the Big Bads in town?"

"As bad as they can get," JD replied passionately. "The crazy lady one almost took my head off."

"You're lucky she didn't take more then that off," Spike added. "Dru can hold her own in a fight."

"And Angelus is leading them I suppose," Buffy mused, venturing a guess. It was hard to equate Angel with the ruthless creature that was now seeking to end her existence without even knowing it. She wondered what would he think if he knew the real importance of Ezra Standish. Would it alter his decision? After all, there were occasions when Buffy had saved his life not to mention given Angelus to emerge when his evil was submerged by the curse and the return of Angel's soul. Probably not, Buffy decided after awhile. If anything, Angelus would find it highly amusing even if it cost him his existence.

"Yep," Spike nodded watching her closely for her reaction, more than aware of their past history. He told himself to take it easy on her because there was a connection between Buffy and Angel that he could never break, no matter how much he might hate it. It had to hurt her seeing Angelus. "This is his show all the way."

"But he doesn't know why my great, great grandpa is so important?" She looked at Ezra and still found it difficult to imagine they shared the same genes. The mention of the word grandpa in association to him made the gambler wince with distaste. It was a reaction that made Buffy feel better though because it was nice to know that he was just as freaked out by this as she. 

"Not at this time. He only knows that we're protecting him." Chris answered the girl now that she was asking sensible questions. When she was not being a typically headstrong, pain in the ass woman that is.

"So we've got to get them to leave, _without_ killing any of them." Buffy stated again, her skepticism showing in her face.

"Yes," Giles nodded the affirmative. "The timeline must be maintained."

"That's easier say then done," Spike voiced what everyone was thinking. "He's gonna be especially interested now that he knows that there's a slayer here."

"We've got to find them first," Buffy announced firmly seeing no other way to proceed but was open to a different plan if either Giles or the handsome man in black had one. "Sure as hell they'll be making more vamps and coming after him once Angel, I mean Angelus regroups."

"What if I were to leave?" Ezra inquired. He did not much like the idea of leaving his friends but to spare them from the onslaught of more vampires, he was willing to make the sacrifice. "He cannot find me if I choose to disappear. I do know how to make myself scarce."

"No way Ezra," Vin Tanner declared from his corner of the room. "You ain't facing this thing on your own. Together, we might be able to fight them off. Alone and you're easy pickings."

"Nicely put Mr. Tanner," Ezra frowned at the tracker for putting it quite so bluntly.

"And he's right," Buffy agreed. "If Angelus is interested, he'll track you down. Believe I know. Best thing we can do is stay put and fight."

"I...I...don't think that running would work anyway," Tara declared. Since regaining consciousness, she had been listening quietly to the conversations being carried out by the others. It was her habit in Sunnydale to fade into the background. Those who knew her were aware she would speak when she had something to say. It was nice to know the seven felt the same way about her but then Tara noticed they were an eclectic bunch who were forced to become accustomed to each other's way in order for their friendship to endure. 

"What if you have to meet your wife here?" Tara offered further. "If you leave, you might not meet her and maybe you'll never have a family."

"She's right Ezra," Buck agreed with that assessment. He did not know anything about timelines or alternate realities but he did know something about fate and life had taught him that the more you tried to go around it, the more you ended up in the same place anyway. Fate would not be denied. However, it was never wise to flaunt it either. "You need to be here as planned for things to go as they should."

"So we're back to square one," Buffy responded a little less encouraged. "We have to make them leave without killing them."

"Something like that," Giles frowned, feeling the impasse as much as she. 

"In that case I'd suggest that we move my great great _grandpa_ somewhere else," Buffy suggested grinning at Ezra, being able to tell by the scowl on the gambler's face that he truly hated being called that. Hey who said she couldn't have a little fun with this?

"Please don't do that," Ezra grumbled giving her a dark look. "Its hard imagining that I'll be siring a gaggle of children, let alone a vampire slayer. I'm not even married!"

"Oh come on," Buffy teased. "I haven't even told you all the great family stories yet! If we were at home, I'd show you me and Dawn's baby pictures!"

"Dawn?" Ezra raised a brow because that was a name he had not heard.

"Your other, great, great grand daughter." Buffy took great relish in the groan that escaped the gambler at the mention of her little sister. However, she was suddenly struck by the realization that if she did not exist then the monks protecting the key would not have thought to use her to give it human form. Dawn would not exist either. It took whatever amusement she had derived from the moment.

Fortunately, Ezra was spared having to respond to that statement when they heard pounding at the front door of the shack. Their initial reaction was that the vampires had come back but then realized that the creatures were not in the habit of knocking. All eyes turned to Chris since it was his home and the gunslinger whose gun came unsheathed in his hand, walked cautiously to the door to open it. The knocking had a ring of desperation to it and Chris wondered if a more conventional form of trouble had come to Four Corners in the seven's absence. The rest of the seven were similarly alerted with weapons drawn while Spike wondered what the concern was all about when his heightened senses detected nothing that could be danger on the other side of the door.

When Chris opened the door, he found that it was not a vampire or any denizen from the underworld but rather Mary Travis, who looked rather disheveled and clearly frightened. 

"Oh Chris!" She cried out unbelievably grateful to see that he was alive and well. Without thinking about the propriety of it, the newspaperwoman wrapped her arms around Chris and embraced him hard. "Thank God you're safe. I'm so sorry, Chris, I had no choice! He was going to kill her! I had to tell him where you were!"

"Mary calm down," Chris felt slightly warm at the feel of her body against his but did not think it was appropriate for in front of so many people, no matter how thrilled she was to see him or how much he enjoyed the sensation. 

"What are you talking about?" He asked when he gently parted from her .and looked her in the eye once more.

"One of those visitors we had to town!" Mary stammered. "I don't know what his name was but you know who I mean. The ones we thought were European aristocrats! He was a vampire! I know it sounds crazy but its true! He was going to tear this poor girl's throat out in front of me. I had to tell him where you were!"

"Wow, she's loud," Buffy quipped, stating the obvious.

Chris shot her a scalding glare before turning back to Mary again, realizing what had caused her terrible panic. Chris was horrified by the notion that Angelus has come after Mary. It had never occurred to the gunslinger that she might be in danger but then he supposed he should have known. Mary was a part of their tight knit group, even if she was not apart of the seven. "He came after you? Did he hurt you? Are you okay? What were you thinking coming here at night? He could have still been out there!"

"Now, he's doing it." Buffy added.

"Will you cut that out!" Chris fairly roared and it was some feat considering he was not a vampire. "I'm sorry Mary," Chris said turning back to Mary, "it never occurred to me that he'd go after you."

"Chris he knew my name and it felt like he knew me personally but I've never even spoken to him. He knew me well enough to know that I would not allow him to kill that girl and he's a vampire Chris, did I mention that? I know it sound insane!" Mary continued to rave, showing no signs of stopping.

"Excuse me," Spike found the need to interrupt irresistible. The woman's prattling was getting on his nerves and they were getting nowhere with their discussion about how to deal with Angelus. "Did he looked something like this?" Without giving Mary any warning, he morphed into his vampire's visage. 

Mary's eyes widened at the sight of him before she let out an ear splitting scream of fright. 

Then she fainted.

"Mary!" Chris caught her in his arms before she could land on the floor and then glared at the vampire that was chuckling to himself with a devilish smirk even though the rest of the room was enveloped in muted silence. 

"Well that was productive," Giles broke the silence by staring reproachfully at the vampire.

"It got her to shut up didn't it?" Spike reasoned innocently.

**********

Angelus was even more confused then ever when he returned to the Landers farm in order to rejoin the rest of his family. He would collect his minions' tomorrow night and then decide what he wanted to do. At the moment, however, he was trying to wrap his mind around what had taken place tonight. How on earth had they managed to bring a slayer here? Angelus was aware like most vampires that the slayer was presently residing in Rhodesia. It was one of the reasons the family had opted to stay away from Africa despite William's insistence to face her. Both Angelus and Darla knew that as exceptional as his potential might be, William was simply not experienced or seasoned enough to face a slayer and the one that Angelus had seen tonight was certainly that and more. The power he sensed emanating from her was proof of that.

For the second time in as many days, he was forced to run and it was not a situation that he was found at all acceptable. He was Angelus. He ran from nothing, not humans or traitorous vampires and certainly not from slayers. However, he had to recognize the danger the slayer presented and this needed discussion with Darla. His mate had been on this earth far longer than he and while she allowed him to be master of their family, there were times when he needed her counsel. Besides, after the failure tonight, he needed badly to be with her. He had told the family to stay put but conceded that even Darla was not required to obey him unconditionally. She needed to feed just like he did.

When he entered the home they had claimed for themselves only two nights ago, he saw Darla coming out of one of the adjoining rooms to greet him.

"Where have you been?" She demanded, her lovely features etched in worry.

"I've been dealing with the humans my love," Angelus responded and saw genuine anxiety on her face and knew something was worrying her beyond the fact that he had been gone for a length of time. They were both creatures of the night and while they hunted together on most occasions, it was not unusual for them to be apart. "What's happened here?" He asked, his hand cupped her cheek and he began to caress her pale skin gently with a finger.

"Its Drusilla," Darla explained as she broke away from his touch and led him towards one of the rooms. "She's had one of her turns. A pretty violent one in comparison to the usual."

"Is she alright?" Angelus asked, both concerned about his minion as well as curious regarding the vision that would have precipitated such a dramatic seeing. After the way this night has transpired, he was in need of some good news. 

"She's better now but she was in a terrible state a short time ago," Darla responded as they both entered the room being occupied by Drusilla and William. Naturally, Drusilla's predilection for dolls and little girl's toys had made her inclined to claim the room that had belonged to the Landers' youngest child, a golden haired cherub who had not lasted long in Drusilla's company. "William is with her now."

"How long ago?" Angelus asked because the timing of it seemed extremely coincidental with what he and his minions experienced prior to reaching humans at Larabee's shack. They had approached on horseback but Angelus has sworn that as they were nearing the parcel of land, the sky was charged with what felt like a thunderstorm. However, upon reaching their destination, all evidence of it had disappeared, not to mention the lack of one drop of rain anywhere. His senses had told him that there was something strange about the phenomenon and considering that his main opponent was another version of one of his minions, Angelus wondered if Drusilla's episode was not somehow connected with the bizarre things that were taking place right now.

"Not very long. No more than two hours. Why?" She looked at him suspiciously, realizing that it was not merely an idle inquiry but a question with purpose. "What happened with the humans?" 

Angelus did not answer her as they entered Drusilla's room. William looked over his shoulder and immediately rose to his feet. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I don't recall having to explain myself to you William," Angelus met his blue eyes with sharp points of warning.

As usual, William showed very little effect of being effected by his threat and retreated only because the young vampire did not wish to distress his black princess. Instead, he ran his fingers over Drusilla's brow, whispering gently into her ear. "There now pet, look whose back." He cast a brief glimpse at Angelus before returning his attention to Drusilla.

"Hello darling," Angelus moved into Drusilla's view and the young female raised her unearthly eyes to his face, breathing life into her listless expression.

"Daddy's home," she smiled sweetly, the traces of holy water that had scarred her the night before was gone. "Something tore a hole daddy, a big hole. The noise hurt my head."

"What was it my precious girl?" Angelus smiled at her, drinking in her delight at seeing him. Drusilla had been his masterpiece and he treated her that way. She had been the culmination of his obsession, a piece of art that he had painstakingly cultivated until all that was pure in what she had once been was stripped down to its bare bones and encased in darkness. He liked to think that she was the caterpillar that had been turned into the butterfly thanks to his hand in her metamorphosis. "Tell daddy what made your head hurt."

Drusilla blinked, taking on that expression she sometimes did when she saw things that were more than just the reality before her. Her eyes could pierce through the seemingly impregnable walls, to catch a glimpse of shadowy reflections of an entirely different order. "She's here daddy, the one of power, the ones that comes to destroy us all. She'll tear the family apart."

"Who is she talking about?" Darla demanded, anxious of anything that might ruin what the four of them had. As vampire clans go, there were strong and they were all direct sires of the Master himself, the clan of Aurelius. Darla had been the Master's sire and in turn she had helped in the creation of the most brutal trio of vampires that had ever walked across the earth. 

"The slayer," Drusilla whispered, not really listening.

"The slayer is here." William's eyes widened with excitement. "Are you sure pet?"

William had been wanting to meet a slayer since Angelus had told the young vampire about the chosen ones, the line of females that were capable of defeating them, who was the only creature alive that could hunt a vampire. The prospect of one being here sent shivers of anticipation through him. Suddenly, the entire situation in Four Corners seemed unimportant next to the possibility that he could face a slayer at long last. Angelus had denied him the chance by avoiding Africa where the slayer was supposed to have been. William did not wish to question what forces had brought her here, not when it would allow him to have his first kill of a slayer.

"Yes," she looked at him strangely and for a moment William saw what appeared to be tears in her eyes as she reached for his cheek. "Oh Spike, she's going to take you and daddy away. She's going to leave me all alone."

"That will never happen," Angelus smiled reassuringly at her.

However, Drusilla would not be consoled and she turned away, tears running down her face. "I see it all coming apart daddy, like cobwebs in my head. She's a spider and she's eating us all. She'll take you first daddy and then mummy and when she's had her fill she'll take you too my darling Spike, she'll leave me alone."

"I've never seen her like this," William stared at Angelus, sensing the fear from his lover even if he did not understand it. She was terrified. He could feel it oozing out of her like blood. "She's bloody terrified." William stared at Angelus, hoping he had an answer because he had known Drusilla longer. It was the one time when William wanted Angelus to do something because he could not bear seeing his lover in such a state.

"Dru," Angelus said soothingly. "No one's leaving you. We're all here and we're sure as hell though enough to face anything that might come after us. You'll never be alone, you'll always have us. We're family aren't we?"

Drusilla did not seem any more at ease because she looked him dead in the eyes and answered. "No you won't. You won't be daddy anymore, you'll be Angel."

***********

  
Darla followed Angelus out of the room a short time later, sensing something from her chosen mate that disturbed her even more than Drusilla's visions. When Darla had made Angelus almost a hundred years before, she had only wished to take a mate because at the time, the young man she had encountered in that alley with his dark, brooding good looks and the devil's own charm, had interested her. She thought to enjoy him for a time but had never imagined that he would become her equal. Within him was darkness waiting exploitation and the demon she unleashed in him reveled in every brutal and sadistic pleasure, teaching her things that even she had not dreamed in her already jaded non-existence. Within a year of taking him as her own, he had made her his and she knew every aspect of him, loved him for his complexity, for making vampires not merely feeders of blood but something to be whispered about by other demons in horrified awe.

That is why she had followed him when he left the room because she knew he was shaken. He had hidden it well of course, Darla was certain that neither William nor Drusilla suspected how shaken he was but she could tell. They had spent a hundred years together, she knew him inside out and she could tell that something Drusilla said had unsettled him greatly. He had walked out of the room, oblivious to the fact that she was behind him, expecting an answer. Darla closed the door behind her for good measure, wishing privacy because she did not want an audience when she confronted him. It would give William to much pleasure to see Angelus upset.

"Angelus, what troubles you?" She asked.

"Nothing," he muttered uncomfortably.

"You cannot hide from me," she said gently and slid her arms around his waist, binding her to him so he could not run but could take some comfort in her touch. "Tell me what is wrong."

"There is a slayer," he answered after a long pause. "I saw her tonight. She was there when I went to get Standish. She killed most of the minions I sired last night."

"Is she the one from Rhodesia?" Darla inquired, surprised by the fact that the slayer whom by all reports was in Africa had somehow miraculously appeared in Four Corners, in the heart of the New Mexican territory.

"I don't think so," he responded. "She didn't look African and her clothes were strange. She wasn't dressed like anyone I've ever seen."

"There cannot be two slayers," Darla stated. 

"She _was_ a slayer," Angelus insisted. "I felt her power. She was fought well and…." His voice drifted off, almost as if he could not bring himself to say what came next.

"What is my darling boy?" She coaxed gently, sensing his worry growing deeper.

"She knew me," he finally answered. "She looked at me and she knew me."

"I don't understand," Darla's brow furrowed. "How could that be? Have you ever met her?"

She was certain he could not have. They had seldom been apart in almost 100 hundred years. If he had encountered a slayer, he would have told her. There were no secrets between them. 

"I've never met her," Angelus responded, putting to rest her thoughts on that.

"Then how is it possible?" She mused.

"I don't know," Angelus pulled away from her so that he could turn around. "She knew me and she called me Angel."

Darla stared at him, understanding why he was fearful. If Drusilla was right about that, was she right about everything else? It was clear Angelus feared she might be and if he had reason to worry, then Darla knew something had to be done. For now however, she needed to reassure him.

"Nothing is going to happen to us my darling boy," she smiled as she leaned forward and kissed him passionately. "I won't allow it. Tomorrow night, we will gather our forces and we will go pay these humans a little visit. We'll finish them once and for all."

"I like the way you think," Angelus smiled at her, drawing strength from her determination. There was very little that Darla did not accomplish when she set her mind to it. "However, I think we need to take more direct means of finding out what is going on. Care to take a little trip with me tonight?"

"I think I can accommodate you," Darla smiled. "What do you have in mind?"

"I plan to find someone who can answer these questions for me," Angelus responded. "One way or another."

*************

"This is all so incredible," Mary Travis mused as she took a sip of the cup of tea in her hands. "I mean I saw it for myself but I can't believe it."

After Spike's surprise disclosure, Mary had been revived enough for complete explanations to be made and while the lady had difficulty grasping all of it, the evidence of her eyes convinced her that everything said was the truth, no matter how incredible. Although they did not anticipate trouble this evening, Chris was reluctant for any of them to travel under the cover of darkness and though it was going to be cramped in his small shack, it was agreed that everyone should stay put for the rest of the evening. Since the seven were accustomed to being on the trail, their bedrolls were permanent fixtures on their saddles and the group prepared to bunk down for the night with the ladies taking up the small bedroom. 

"Well, it probably would have helped if you Master of Tact over here hadn't scared you half to death with his game face. " Buffy found herself needing to apologize for Spike and then came to the horrific realization that it was a very girlfriend thing to be doing for the vampire. She narrowed her eyes and shot Spike a venomous glare for placing her in such a position in the first place. Spike caught her expression and furrowed his brow in confusion wondering what had he done now that she was pointing daggers at him.

"It helped didn't it?" He asked innocently.

"Next time, let me do the explaining," Giles responded, giving Spike a look that bordered on parental disapproval. "I'm more likely to be able to manage without incurring fainting spells."

"Sorry, I forgot what women were like in this day and age," Spike grumbled. "Always fainting or getting the vapors. Got too used to the bra burning types. It's all petticoats and a complete lack of backbone now isn't it? Letting the men do all the work, while you sit around at home being pretty."

"Oh boy," Buck winced, wondering if the vampire knew what he had gotten into. "You done it now boy. I'm going to get my stuff, anyone coming with me?"

At least four hands shot up and within seconds, half the seven's compliment seemed to suddenly come to the conclusion that it was best to make themselves scarce, pre-empting the tirade they knew was going to come from Mary.

"Done what?" Spike stared at him and noted that remaining men were directing him a look of sympathy, even as they were retreating to minimum safe distance. Even Chris Larabee was somewhat anxious and Spike wondered why they were suddenly so nervous.

"Being pretty?" Mary stood up straight and declared hotly. "I'll have you know that I do not faint regularly Mr. Spike! However, I do think that on this occasion, being confronted so starkly with your demon presence took me by surprise and I was allowed my discretion. I see chauvinism is alive and well in the demon world not to mention the future. I had hoped that blight would be eradicated in a hundred years but I suppose only the times change, men remain the same! Chauvinistic and ill tempered, not to mention misinformed! I _do not_ sit around and let a man do anything for me Mr. Spike! I run my own newspaper and have been doing so quite well since my husband passed on. Most women are in the situation we are because stupid, arrogant men who seem to think that they are the only creatures on God's green earth with a brain run the world will not allow us to be anything else! Heaven forbid if a woman showed the slightest bit of intelligence!"

"You tell him sister," Buffy grinned, deciding there and then she liked Mrs. Travis quite a bit. She must have been the Gloria Steinham of her time. 

"And you Chris!" Mary glared at the gunslinger in her tirade, allowing no one to escape unscathed.

"What did I do?" He cried helplessly and then shot a look at Spike, telling the vampire he would pay for this later on.

"You could have told me that there were vampires roaming about town!" Mary said angrily, wishing she had a bit of warning instead of being taken by surprise as she had and fainting like some weak female. 

"I didn't want to scare you!" He replied automatically and decided that was probably the worst thing he could have said. 

"Oh so you just let this creature appear at my door, rather than warning me? What if I had invited him in? Did you ever think about that?" Mary stared at him.

"Well, no…" Chris stammered to explain and then gave up all together. "I thought it was best not trouble you."

"I am not some delicate flower that needs protecting Mr. Larabee! I thought I had proven myself to you on numerous occasions that I am capable of taking care of myself!"

"Sure you are," Chris snorted, feeling his own anger get the better of him. "That's why I'm always hauling your ass out of trouble. Face it Mrs. Travis you get into more hot water than any woman alive!"

"My ass," Mary hissed, "is none of your concern!"

"Don't flatter yourself," Chris snapped. "If it was ass that I was after, I can find plenty to accommodate me that wouldn't give me half as much lip as you do!"

"You pig!" Mary cried out in outrage.

"They always like this?" Spike asked Ezra Standish as they continued to watch the unfolding melee with fascination..

"Oh yes," Ezra grinned as he watched Chris being torn to strips by the lovely blond newspaperwoman. It was always gratifying to see someone as self-assured as Chris Larabee off balanced by Mary Travis. Their arguments were the stuff of legend even though to anyone who saw them together, the reason for such heated emotions was clear enough. "This is one of their more restrained jousts."

"She is _so_ into him," Tara stated quietly.

"Nah," Buffy shook her head. "He's _into_ her."

"She's seems a rather spirited woman for her time," Giles agreed, feeling a sliver of pain inside him which he hid from everyone because she reminded him a great deal of Jenny Calendar, a woman he had loved deeply once and had lost to the Master. Jenny had been a techno pagan and had been instrumental in introducing the librarian to the world of computers when she had begun teaching at Sunnydale High. Jenny was one of the first lives the Master had taken upon his emergence from exile and ever since then Giles had avenged her with each vampire he killed. 

"Mary's a tough lady," Vin Tanner agreed. "Ain't many women who goes through what she does in the Territory, running a newspaper, raising a son and all."

"Well someone ought to separate them before blood gets drawn," Giles commented.

"Oh they'll be fine," Spike shrugged and then a thought filled his head which brought a smile to his face which he just had to share with Buffy. "Sometimes all it takes for two people to get going is just a little bit of violence to kick start things."

His response earned him a sharp nudge in the ribs to which he chuckled deviously to himself, enjoying the private joke immensely, much to the slayer's chagrin.

"That's not very romantic," Tara looked at him with her nose wrinkled in disapproval and wondered if this was vampire humor or was he really serious. Did people have relationships that started this way? Still Chris and Mary were fun to watch. "I think they're kind of cute actually." She took up her observation of the feuding couple once more.

"Cute?" Vin looked at her with a smile and then glanced at Ezra with mischief.

"Mr. Larabee will be thrilled with that description," Ezra remarked and was almost tempted to tell him if he knew that it would probably get him shot, especially after how the gunslinger's mood would probably be when he and Mary were done arguing.

"I dare you to tell him," Vin challenged. 

"If I am going to gamble with my life, I would prefer a less dangerous outcome if I were to lose," the gambler said good-naturedly.

"Now there's an idea," Spike looked at Ezra with interest. "Fancy a game of poker?"

Ezra raised a brow. The last time he had engaged in a game of poker he had almost been killed for his trouble. "That depends."

"On what?" Spike asked.

"On whether or not you will attempt to tear out my throat if I lose," Ezra retorted.

"Spike cheats at kitten poker!" Buffy blurted smugly and drew a look from her sometime lover. 

"Quiet you," he growled, not wishing to explain that to this crowd. "That was playing with demons, this is for real."

"I'm not even going to ask what she means by that," Giles retorted, deciding a little bit of diversion was not a bad idea. Lord knows their attention was already focus on demons and vampires overlords ruling the future and as entertaining as Chris and Mary were, the duo would soon tire or kill each other, which ever came first. "However, if you're talking about a straight game of poker, you can count me in."

"Me too," Vin added. "Someone's got to keep you guys honest."

"I resent the implication Mr. Tanner," Ezra stared at him. "I never cheat when it comes to poker."

"Yeah right," Vin remarked in a tone that was completely skeptical of that claim.

"Hey Tara," Buffy motioned the shy young witch to her. Even though it was explained to Buffy that this was not the Tara that she knew, Buffy could not help feeling the same way towards Tara that she felt for Giles. To her, they were still the people she cared about, even if they were from different dimensions.

"Have you noticed how these guys didn't even ask us if _we_ wanted to play?" Buffy whispered quietly in her ear.

"I did kind of," Tara nodded and noted that the men had gathered around the table with Ezra producing a pack of cards. Mary had walked into Chris' bedroom and slammed the door on the gunslinger, deciding to turn in for the night rather than continue arguing. Chris in turn had left the shack, opting to seek out the rest of his companions who had decided to take an extra long time in retrieving their bedrolls rather than get caught into the duo's cross fire.

"We ought to teach them a lesson," Buffy gave Tara a look, her brow raising just a notch in a proposal of mischief.

Tara's smiled spread across her lips and she found herself asking, "what did you have in mind?"

**********

"Can I play?" Buffy asked about an hour after the men were into the game.

"_Can_ you play pet?" Spike looked over his shoulder at her, somewhat surprised that she wanted in. After all she had never professed any ability to play cards. In fact the last time he had actually been at a poker game, Buffy had not shown the slightest bit of interest.

"Sure I can," Buffy replied confidently. "I played in college."

"You played poker in college?" Nathan exclaimed. "In school?"

"What else are a bunch of college girls going to do at night in a dorm after curfew?" Buffy answered. "Its either poker or all night eating binges where we talk about boys and sex."

Vin and Ezra started choking on their spit and Buffy realized that was probably more than they needed to know. "Sorry," she apologized. 

"I suppose sleep is out of the question?" Giles retorted feeling just as uncomfortable about Buffy's last statement as his old west comrades, but not as obvious in his reaction.

"Giles, you _really_ need to get a life," Buffy pointed out. "Okay deal me in."

"I am certain a descendant of mine will have the skills necessary to acquit herself in this game. After all, gender has never stopped my dear mother from playing with expertise." Ezra recovered enough to say.

"Ezra," Vin stared at him. "Your mother plays better than you."

"Really?" Buffy asked, thinking it kind of cool that her great, great, great grandmother was such a skillful cardsharp. 

"I will die before I admit that," Ezra retorted with a completely straight face.

Buck, JD and Josiah were outside taking watch, choosing not to be unprepared if Angelus should choose to come back for a second round tonight. Chris had decided that it was best if they stayed put at least until the morning before they headed back to town. At least in daylight, they could be assured of making that journey safely, especially now that Mary was counted among their number. The lady herself had chosen to retire following her argument with Chris and had promptly taken residence within the small room, which served as his bedroom. The gunslinger himself had opted to stay out of the game. Chris chose to spend the rest of the night staring out the window, claiming that he was keeping watch even though most could tell that his quarrel with the lovely newspaperwoman had upset him more than he liked to admit.

Buffy had not lied when she said she knew how to play poker. In the days before she had started dating Riley at college and when Willow was out with Oz, she had plenty of time to spend by herself in her dorm and had joined a few of the after hours activities undertaken by those who had nothing better to do. Poker had been one of these. Of course, that brief flirtation with the pastime did not mean her skill was anywhere matching that being shown at the table. Although Ezra was the professional card player at the table, Vin and Nathan appeared to be pretty good. Giles managed to hold his own but it was clear that the real challenge lay between Ezra and Spike. She could not tell this time whether or not the vampire was cheating when he had been playing for kittens but he seemed to very good at it.

However, it soon appeared that luck was tilting in her favor as the right cards seemed to come to her with every hand. Sooner than anyone would have liked, Nathan, Giles and Vin had been played out of the game and it was left to Buffy, Spike and Ezra. It pleased Buffy to no end to see the expression of astonishment on Spike's face at her skill and it was nice to know that occasionally, she could surprise him. In a _non-sexual_ way that is. 

"Life must have been pretty boring before Captain Cardboard," Spike commented. "You must have been playing _a lot_ of bloody games."

"I can't help it," Buffy smirked at him, not at all upset by his less than flattering reference to Riley because there was more to her skill then he knew. "It's in the genes."

"To that I have to say its true," Ezra responded. "She does have the Standish touch."

"You mean the ability to hide aces up your sleeve?" Nathan quipped with a little smile as they continued to watch.

"I take umbrage at that remark Sir," Ezra declared hotly. "My skill is in the hands. Besides anyone with expertise would never be fool enough to use an ace, its too easy to remember. One picks a card that does not stand out in memory."

"Oh my god," Buffy stared at him. "I really do come from a long line of cheaters'

"That is a harsh word my dear," Ezra said smoothly. "I believe illusionist is a better word."

"Houdini was an illusionist," Buffy retorted not at all fooled by the colorful terminology. "Hiding cards in one sleeves is cheating."

"She's got you there Ez," Nathan grinned. "Nice to know that one of the Standish' is gonna learn that. Makes me know that my hard work trying to teach Ezra some scruples isn't going to waste."

"And I thought slaying was hard," Buffy teased.

"You know, you're supposed to be on my side, being family and all?" Ezra reminded her.

"I could bite her for you if you like," Spike offered Ezra sweetly.

"You could try," Buffy glared at him. "And when you're done trying, I'd stake you."

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Vin asked interrupting the two of them before they were treated to the Sunnydale version of Chris and Mary.

"Reform school," Spike retorted and earned a jab in the shoulder for his trouble.

"Giles trained me," Buffy answered after a second of staring hatefully at Spike.

"You taught her to fight like that?" Chris exclaimed, somewhat surprised that the gentle librarian had the skill to teach the girl to kill vampires and to defend herself in general with such polished savagery. The rest of the seven present shared his astonishment as their eyes turned to the Watcher. 

"Well not this Giles," Buffy quickly clarified for their understanding. "My Giles, the one I remember." She met Giles' gaze, wishing he was _her_ Giles, the man who had been there for her during the hardest events in her life, who always ensured that no matter how many times she fell, he would be there to pick her up and set on her feet again. He was also the one who had left her because he loved her enough to let her go because she needed that nudge to stand up for herself to reclaim her life and her existence. As much as Buffy hated him for that, she also loved him for it. "It was his job."

"I must say he did exceptionally well," Giles swallowed wishing that he had known what it was like to be her Watcher because the affection in her eyes touched him deeply. A Watcher's allegiance was to the Council first, the slayer second. It was clear that her Giles had crossed the emotional barriers that were supposed to keep the Watchers neutral. Buffy had loved his alternate self like a father and he could not help being moved by that affection as well as feeling a little envious. He had always hoped to be Watcher to a slayer but that was not meant to be. He had not regretted it until now.

"Yeah," Buffy nodded with a bittersweet smile. "You could say that."

"Well young lady," Ezra stared pointedly at her direction returning her thoughts to the game she was playing. "What do you bet?"

Buffy allowed a smug smile to steal across her features before shifting her rather sizeable win into the centre of the table, making the pot already there look even more tempting. "Everything," she said confidently. 

"Everything?" Her opponents voiced their surprise quite vocally.

"If I were you guys, I'd start to worry," Chris remarked with an amused smile, speaking for the first time in a while.

"She's bluffing." Spike stated.

"What makes you say that?" Vin asked, not believing him for a second. The slayer looked all too satisfied to be playing a bluff. 

"Because you don't spend as much time wanting to kill a person without learning something about her," the vampire retorted but he did not seem nearly as certain as Buffy did about her hand.

"I must concur with my demonic opponent on this," Ezra added his voice into the mix, studying the young woman closely and was sure that this was a bluff. He had paid attention to where the cards had gone and noble types like her were too pure to cheat, even if she had Standish in her bloodline. "I believe the lady is bluffing, in which case I match your bet and call."

"Spike?" Buffy turned to her lover. "If you wanna see my cards, you're going to have to pay."

"I still say you're bluffing luv," Spike declared and took up her challenge by matching her stake in the center of the table.

"Buffy perhaps it was unwise to take such an exorbitant gamble," Giles found it necessary to remark, although he supposed that would have been a better warning if he had made it before the other two opponents had called her bluff.

"Trust me Giles," she gave the Watcher a confident grin, unable to help feeling the same towards him as she would with her Giles, especially when he wore the same comfortable manner.

"Alright then my dear," Ezra stared at her in expectation. "It is time to see if you have inherited the Standish touch. Let's see your cards."

Buffy took a deep breath and presented her cards to her opponents, relishing their exclamations of shock when they saw what she had been holding in her hand. 

"I don't believe it," Nathan cried out. "A royal flush!"

"But…but…that's impossible!" Ezra stammered as he stared in shock at the perfectly sequenced collection of spades, starting from the ace and finally reaching its customary end at the ten. "I was certain I saw those cards before."

"Don't be a sore loser Ez," Vin drawled. 

Spike however, did not say anything for a few seconds. Instead he looked around the room and noted that Tara was seated by herself in a corner, appearing to read but somehow her concentration as elsewhere. He watched her for a few seconds as Ezra tried to comprehend how Buffy could have won with the cards she had and noticed that Tara took an inordinately long time to turn the page she was reading. Suddenly, it came to him what tricks the slayer was up to. He was almost tempted to expose her but the argument she was presently having with her gambling ancestor was just too fun to watch.

"Are you accusing me of cheating?" Buffy's voice sliced through his consciousness.

"If I did not think you incapable of it, I would say yes," Ezra responded haughtily. He had watched the game closely, there was no way she could have cheated without his knowing it. Ezra prided himself in knowing every trick to the game. There were people he could tell were cheating just by the look on their faces.

"Jesus, Ezra," Chris found himself saying. "Take it like a man."

"But…but…there is just no conceivable way she could have done it!" Ezra cried out in exasperation and looked to Spike. "Do you not find it peculiar?"

"Sure I do mate," Spike chuckled. "But then I'm used to dealing with Slayers and their magician friends."

"Hey I resent that!" Buffy said defensively but not before a smile of pure mischief crossed her face. "Tara likes to be called a witch not a magician."

"Thank you," Tara chuckled from where she was, enjoying her part in this little mischief. She did not get to do it often enough.

"You cheated using magic?" Ezra stared at her in accusation, not knowing whether or not he should be angry or proud.

"How else was I gonna teach you guys a lesson for not inviting me?" Buffy winked as the room started to rumble with laughter.

Unfortunately, whatever amusement to be had in Buffy and Tara's little bout of trickery was soon forgotten when JD burst into the room, awkwardly supporting Buck on his considerably smaller frame. The big man was bleeding from the neck from what appeared to be a bite wound. Buck, JD and Josiah had been keeping guard outside, even though Chris had not thought that the vampires would be back tonight. However, it had seemed prudent to take the precaution. Now, it appeared that once again, he had underestimated Angelus' determination to discover the truth.

"Where's Josiah?" Chris demanded when he realized the preacher was not with them.

Buck seemed too dazed to answer but JD's expression was grim and without even speaking, they knew what his answer would be. 

Josiah was with Angelus.


	7. Chapter 6

****

Part Six

Finished

For a few seconds after the news about Josiah had been made known to them, no one could speak. A heavy silence descended upon all of them as they struggled in their own way to deal with the terrible news. The words felt almost unreal as it seeped into their bones and made its denial impossible once it intermingled with blood and become apart of them. Typically it was Nathan who came to life, his imperative to help Buck overriding his shock. His healer's instincts kicked in immediately as he hurried to JD. Buck was not quite unconscious but he was getting there. The stain of crimson spreading from his collar in a downward descent indicated that Nathan had not much time. Nathan's actions breathed life to the others and as Nathan reached Buck, Mary emerged from the adjoining room to investigate the commotion.

"How bad is it?" Chris asked Nathan as the healer made a quick examination of the bite mark on Buck's neck as he and JD brushed past the others.

"I'm not sure," Nathan responded as Mary quickly vacated the small bedroom so that Nathan could treat Buck there. "I don't think his jugular's been punctured," he ventured a guess. "If it were, he would be dead by now."

"I manage to get the woman off him," JD explained. "You know how Buck is around women, he couldn't bring himself to hurt her, not until it was too late."

Unfortunately, Chris did. If there were one thing that could be considered a blind spot in his normally capable old friend's psyche, it would be his reaction to women. Buck was a notorious womanizer because he adored women, in all shapes and forms. His upbringing in a bordello coupled with the fact that his mother, a working girl, had lavished shameless affection on him despite how he had come to her, had a great deal to do with his attitude to them. Buck did not believe women could be just as mean and conniving as men could. He often defended the bad behavior of many of the sex by claiming its cause was usually a life of abuse or some misfortune to which a man should attempt to make amends by kindness. Chris had lost count of how many time Buck had gotten into trouble because of that kind of thinking.

Like now.

Darla had chosen well when she approached Buck who no doubt would have fallen sway to her beauty, believing that there had to be some trace of humanity in her that would not harm he. Chris wondered if Buck had finally learnt his lesson when she sunk her fangs into his neck. Thinking about Buck's injury, his mind immediately settled on Josiah who was in an even worse situation. It was still several hours to daylight and more than enough time for the vampires to spirit him far enough away for them to never find him. Chris hesitated to use the word 'alive'. 

"JD," Chris called out as the younger man disappeared into the room. "Once you're done with helping Nathan with Buck I want you to show us where they jumped you. We're going after them."

"You have no idea where they went," Giles spoke up. 

"I can track them," Vin responded automatically as he went towards the door.

"In the dark?" Buffy asked with surprise.

"Done it before," the tracker said shortly.

"Giles, you and Tara stay here," Buffy turned to her Watcher and the young Wiccan. "Help Nathan with the big guy."

"What about you?" Giles asked. 

"We're going with them," Buffy stated, giving Chris a look that defied him to say otherwise. 

"So am I," Ezra replied with just as much conviction.

"NO YOU AREN'T!" Buffy and Chris declared in unison before exchanging embarrassed glances at each other over having the same thought.

"You cannot expect me to stay here?" Ezra stared at them with incredulity. "You need all the help you can get!"

"We do," Chris did not bother to deny that. "However, right now, everything hinges on you staying alive. If you get killed out there," he glanced at Buffy, "she gets wiped out of existence and I rather that didn't happen when we're in the middle of a fight. Besides, the safest place for you to be right now is in here. They can't come in without an invite and someone's got to protect Buck and the others if they come back."

Ezra stared at him for a few seconds before speaking, "I am assuming you included that final portion so that I would not feel completely useless?"

"Never can get anything by you Ez," Chris retorted with a little smile, even though his mood was anything but humorous. "Come on let's get going." He ordered.

"Chris," Mary found her voice in the midst of all this discussion. The idea that he was going to face the creature she had seen at her door tonight, terrified Mary to no end. "Be careful," she said softly. 

Of course there was nothing else she could say. She could not tell him not to go because he would never listen to her and even if she admitted how much it would hurt losing him, she would never force that burden upon him. His friends had breathed life into his wounded heart. To force him to choose between them and her was an injury she would never make him suffer. So she remained silent, allowing her few words to tell him all that was needed for now.

Chris saw it all in her eyes, what was spoken and unspoken between them. He nodded slightly in a show of understanding before turning away to Ezra. "Keep everyone safe Ezra."

"God speed Chris," Ezra returned and watched them leave with the hope that God was indeed watching.

**********

"You can take Buck's horse," Chris told Buffy as they walked to the coral where the horses were presently hitched.

"You mean ride?" Buffy stammered.

Suddenly, everyone froze in their tracks and stared at the slayer. 

"You can't ride?" Chris cried out in exasperation. How on earth did these people in the future get anywhere! 

"I got led around on a pony once at a petting zoo," Buffy volunteered reluctantly only to hear the man in black uttering a litany of curses that made her blush.

"Its alright," Spike broke into the conversation before the gunslinger popped a vein. "She can ride with me."

"Thank Christ," Chris muttered and started walking again. The three lawmen were striding forward purposefully and Buffy did not doubt that Angelus might have reason to regret kidnapping on of their own. Chris, did not appear to be a man who took kindly to threats against to his friends and there was just enough edge to this dark mood that told that Buffy that when it overtook him, he could be especially savage. He reminded her a little of herself in that way and Buffy wondered whether or not Spike had got it wrong, that she was not related to Ezra but rather Chris, since his demeanor was so much like hers.

"You can ride?" Buffy asked quietly as she walked alongside of him. Buffy was too accustomed to seeing him in his black Desoto or the motorcycle he had acquired recently. It was difficult to picture a vampire who had a penchant for Billy Idol and the Sex Pistols astride a horse. 

"I was born quite a few years before this time you know," he said as a matter of factly. "It was horses until the late 1900's."

"Just can't picture you on a horse that's all," Buffy remarked, supposing she did not know very much about who he had been when he was human. "I think of men on horses and I think of Prince Charming. You are so not Prince Charming."

"So you keep telling me," he said sarcastically, as if he needed to have his nose rubbed in it at just how unsuitable he was for her hand or her affections. "I suppose I shouldn't expect much better since I'm convenient."

With that Spike hastened his pace to catch up with the three men who were leaving them behind rapidly in their eagerness to reach their friend. Buffy paused a moment, startled that he had brought that up and the flippancy that she would normally have used to counter his acerbic remark did not surface. In its place, something else did and Buffy hated to admit that it felt uncomfortably like guilt. She felt guilty for having said that to him. She was suddenly reminded of how Parker had treated her. Parker had been her first lover after Angel had left Sunnydale. In her haste to find love with someone who was remotely normal, she missed all the signs of what kind of person he really was. Unfortunately, she learnt that lesson the hard way after spending the night with Parker only to have him discard her as if she was nothing. It was too Buffy's absolute horror that she realized that she was now treating Spike the same callousness.

As far as Buffy was concerned, her feelings for Spike were uncharted territory. When she thought about them, she usually found her weighing the positive and the negatives of having any kind of relationship with a vampire. It was not as if this was new to her. The same debate had raged on within her when Angel was in her life. However, Spike was not Angel. In some ways this was a good thing. It was good because if were he too much like Angel, she would only be using him as a replacement and even she had enough conscience to know that was wrong. The most basic difference was the fact that Angel as in possession of a soul and Spike did not. 

At least she did not think he did but then the question of the soul these days was a matter of perspective. He loved her. She had no doubt of that. He had almost endured disembowelment by Glory to protect her and Dawn from the hell god and ensured that while she had been dead, Dawn had been safe. Could a demon without a soul love her as much as he had proven on countless occasions? Xander would argue that she would be a fool to love someone like Spike or even reciprocate the deep feelings he had for her. She did not believe that was true. Angel had been accused of far worse crimes than Spike could even begin to imagine and she had been able to forgive him. It could be said that Angel had a soul and should be forgiven but where love was concerned, Buffy had given much thought to the whole concept of late. Angel needed a soul to love her because as soon as he had lost it, Angelus had torn her life apart. Spike on the other hand loved her even though he did not have a soul and was far less wi lling to leave her. Everything about Spike was a contradiction and the more Buffy tried to wrap her mind around it, the less certain she became about how she felt.

Did she love him?

She did not know and that was the most honest answer she could give at the moment. She did know that he understood her like no one else did and that he loved the woman she was underneath the Slayer that dominated her life. Despite all the abuse she had hurled at him of late, particularly the comment about him being convenient which she had been too confused to know at the time had hurt him deeply, he still remained at her side, determined to help her and Dawn. And what about where they were now? According to Giles, the future without her had been a vampire Utopia. Spike did not even have the chip any more and yet he was doing everything to ensure its return by changing the events that saw her wiped out of existence.

Life was so much less complicated when he was trying to kill her.

The smell of animals reminded her of where she was and she blinked seeing the corral where the horse were kept. Chris, Vin and JD were already mounting their horses while Spike was staring at her expectantly.

"Come on Princess," he said sarcastically as he motioned her forward. "Prince Charming awaits."

Buffy's response was a scowl followed by a most unladylike gesture with her middle finger that crossed the language barrier more clearly than words could ever manage.

"Now is that any way for a lady to behave?" Spike teased.

"Drop dead, Spike." She snapped as he heaved her into the saddle.

"Too late," he grinned at her. "Been there, done that."

************

Josiah did not think it was possible to be hit that hard.

Most of the time, people who saw his bulk would usually think twice about making the effort. After all, who would want to provoke a stoutly built preacher with a hair trigger temper unless they really had to? It had been a long time since Josiah had been knocked out cold, so cold that he was only now regaining consciousness and it was to his utmost alarm that he realized that where he had lost consciousness, was not where he was waking up. Even as he opened his eyes to darkness, he felt his head swimming with vibrations of lingering pain. It did not help that the darkness was assaulting his senses with its pitch black intensity and the terrible musty smell that told him he was in a basement of some sort. However, underlying that odor of dust was something else, something unspeakable. His mind latched onto the scent because during his preaching days he had attended more than his share of funerals. The inside of this room he was presently occupying smelled like a tomb.

The last thing that he remembered was hearing JD screaming for help because Buck whom at the time had left to take care of a little private had somehow run into trouble. Josiah did not know the specifics but he remembered running after JD who was off like a shot, despite the preacher's entreaties to slow down and wait for him. At the time, Josiah's primary concern in the warning was to ensure that the young man did not run headlong into something he could not handle. It did not occur to him that he ought to be concerned for his own welfare. As JD disappeared into the darkness, Josiah had suddenly found himself alone with only the sound of Buck's cries to act as beacon in the night. Since learning about vampires and the existence of the supernatural, Josiah had good reason to fear the darkness around him but he assumed that if there was any danger to be had, it would be directed towards the house where Ezra and the slayer were presently residing.

It never occurred to him that he was the intended target because he was alone.

Angelus appeared out of nowhere, like a shadow suddenly given life. The vampire was tall and well built. Had he been human, Josiah would have been slightly concerned at pitting himself against Angelus. However, he was not human and coupled with vampire strength, Josiah was soon shown how outmatched he was. The creature overcame him easily with a series of blows that left the preacher staggering. The last thing he remembered before waking up here was Angelus' leering face as the final strike connected with his jaw and then everything had gone black. 

And continued to remain so.

He found that he was not bound and could move about freely. Pushing himself off the dusty floor, Josiah clawed the air around him to find support to help him move in his darkened surroundings. He put one tentative foot forward, reasoning that if he found a wall, then it would inevitably lead him to a door if he followed it. His first step yielded nothing in his way and he took his second and then a third, occasionally running into something that he was able to navigate around without tripping over or worse. Eventually he reached his objective and began the arduous journey of feeling his way to the door. He rather wondered why they had not tied him up, since it had to be academic that he would run as soon as he found the opportunity. Considering the danger to his immortal soul in their hands, it could not be any other way.

Josiah did not deny that he was afraid. Since this had all began, Josiah's faith in his God had strengthened a thousand fold because he now had incontrovertible proof of the Almighty's existence. Not many men were given that kind of assurance and though knowing God exist did little to change the present course of his life, it did give him comfort knowing that when he prayed, he was actually talking to God. It was not important that he received an answer because he was not so arrogant to think that God planned his day around Josiah's problems and also because Josiah preferred to find his own answers. 

"You're making good progress there preacher," a voice suddenly filled the air and froze Josiah in his tracks.

Somehow, Josiah was not entirely surprised that there was someone in the room with him. He had questioned why he had not been tied up or restrained in anyway, he supposed now he knew. The vampire had been waiting quietly in the dark, having superior vision to see him without the use of any light and no need to take breath, maintaining his anonymity as he watched his prey and waited for him to wake up. For Josiah, being caught did not feel as bad as never having any chance of escape at all. The preacher let out a heavy sigh and remained where he was, seeing no need to continue but having no wish to return to the place he had been.

The strike of a match soon after flooded the room with light and Josiah found that he was indeed in a cellar. Unfortunately, the light showed him the smell of death that he had earlier identified came not from the walking undead in the room with him but rather what was left of the earlier occupants of the residence. Josiah closed his eyes and forced his revulsion away because that was the least of his troubles at the moment. Angelus sat on a chair, facing an empty one as he waited for Josiah to speak.

"What do you want?" The preacher finally asked.

"Lots of things," Angelus remarked with a smile. "The sun going on the world forever, a houseful of lusty wenches for the turning, the possibilities are endless but for now," he turned his dark eyes on Josiah. "I'd settle for information."

Josiah stared at him hard and replied softly, "you'll have to settle for something else. I don't have any."

"You don't have any?" Angelus laughed out loud as if finding his resistance amusing. "My father was a preacher back in Ireland, you know. Made my life a hell as boy growing up. He seemed to think that I ought to following in his path, made me suffer when I wouldn't. He told me that I would be damned for eternity. He told me a lot of things. He always seemed to have something to say. I find it hard that any man of the cloth even when they're supposed to abandon the faith would have nothing to say."

"Believe it," Josiah retorted. "I'm not telling you anything."

"I'm sorry to hear that preacher," Angelus replied coldly. "This relationship might have ended amicably."

"How amicably would it have ended? I doubt you were going to let me go," Josiah answered trying to control his fear, telling himself that he had done much in his life for which penance was owed. It appeared that he might be accounting himself before God sooner than he liked. However, if it meant saving his friends from this monster, he could accept it.

"No I wasn't," Angelus replied with a smile. "That's still something left over from my father that keeps me from lying to a man of God. I was going to kill you but how you die is entirely up to you. It can be quick or it can be slow and do not doubt me when I say that I have had an exceptionally long time to sharpen my skill in how slow it can be."

Josiah suppressed the tendril of fear that was wrapping itself around his spine and faced Angelus, determined that he would not give into this creature and betray his friends. "Then I suppose we better get started."

********

Frankly Buffy was amazed that there was any trail to follow at all as they rode into the night. Dawn was only a few hours away and if they did not find the preacher soon, Spike would have to turn back before the sunlight killed him. The urgency of more than just that was pressing down on them however, the possibility that Josiah could be lost to them in a way worse than death preyed heavily upon all their minds. The three men said little but when they did speak, they were all business. Chris was the most somber of them all and seemed to take it personally that Josiah had been taken by Angelus. Buffy could not imagine why he would think that way when it was mere chance that allowed the abduction.

Vin Tanner seemed to be able to find tracks in the most obscure places, in a broken branch, in the groove of dirt which somehow translated to him as more than just irregularities in the ground but a vague path that they could follow. She marveled at his ability to track at night but apparently prior to his arrival in Four Corners, Vin had tracked buffalo and that made him quite adept at nocturnal hunting. If there was time, she would have asked him to teach her some of what he knew because it would have been a very useful skill for a slayer to have.

For some reason, Spike seemed somewhat agitated as well. It was hard enough riding double on horseback with him and trying not to get lost in how his closeness next to her but he was unusually tense which somewhat surprised her, not to mention unusually determined to find the preacher. Buffy could not imagine why that would be the case because she could think of no less likely person for Spike to befriend than a man of the cloth. Of course, even as she thought that, she was reminded of the fact that it was as unlikely as a vampire falling for a slayer.

"I can smell blood," Spike remarked as they paused briefly in their journey for Vin to seek out more tracks. "They were here."

"There's a little of it on the ground," Vin sniffed the dirt in his hand. "The horses slowed down about here, probably needed the rest after hard riding." The tracker guessed.

"What's around here?" Chris asked, looking around the place with its tall trees framing the trail they were taking.

"Not much," Vin answered. "A couple of homestead, scattered around but that's about it."

"Angelus wouldn't go to far," Spike responded. "He'd have to get where he was going before daylight and he'd want to talk to the preacher in a hurry."

"You mean torture him," Buffy blurted out, remembering what Angelus had did to Giles once in his efforts to learn the secrets of Acathla's awakening.

The four men tensed and Spike gave Buffy a dark look that warned her against being so frank with these men. The preacher meant a great deal to them and they did not need to be reminded what the stakes were if they did not find him. 

"Josiah won't talk," Chris said firmly.

"Are you sure?" Buffy had to ask even if he did not wish to face the possibility.

Chris stared at her sharply. "Yeah I'm sure," he retorted. "Josiah's tough. Unfortunately, he's also got one hell of a death wish." 

"Excuse me?" Her eyes widened, thinking she had heard wrong for a moment.

Chris did not respond and simply walked back to his horse, leaving Vin to do the honors. JD seemed just as uncomfortable about answering because he did not understand enough to explain it. 

"He's calls it the hearing the crows," Vin sighed before answering them. "Ever since we met him, he has this strange idea that he's time had come, that the crows were gonna come for him. He ain't been so bad since we got together but he's more than ready to die. If Angelus tortures him, Josiah would die before saying anything."

"Makes sense," Spike nodded in understanding as Vin and JD turned back to mount their horses to begin riding again.

"It does?" Buffy looked at him because she could not see what birds had to do with death.

"In lots of cultures, its believed that crows come when someone is about to die," Spike explained. "It's a very old legend."

"Since when did you become knowledge guy?" She asked.

"Since I've been around about a hundred and twenty years longer than you?" He snorted. "In any case, it's not going to happen. I'm not going to let the preacher die, no way."

"Not that I'm not impressed by this sudden show of compassion Spike," Buffy retorted skeptically as he helped her into the saddle again. She could not quite get use to riding an animal to get from one place to another yet. "But when did you decide to join the human race?"

"I didn't," the vampire hissed with annoyance. "But the preacher was decent to me. Not many people especially men of the cloth would give a vampire the time of day. So I don't want him hurt just because of some mess than came about because of me."

"That's not going to happen," Chris said firmly, touched by Spike's words and glad to know that something more than duty motivated the vampire's desire to help them find Josiah. He considered the situation carefully and tried to outthink his enemy. Vin's clues were leading them in the right direction but Chris feared that it was still taking too much time. "Vin, what homesteads are around here?"

"Cal Anderson's place isn't too far from here," Vin ran off the names in his mind to the best of his recollection.

"No, that wouldn't work," Chris shook his head. "Cal has a dozen men working for him on his spread and a family. If they tried for a place like that, you can count on at least one person making it out a live to warn us. I get the impression that Angelus wouldn't want any fuss."

"You're right," Spike agreed. "Knowing my sire like I do, he'd want to keep it on the quiet."

"What else is around here?" Chris inquired. Vin patrolled more than any of the seven because the tracker felt the bustle of town too much for him. Vin preferred wide open spaces and was known to take off for days at a time just so he could enjoy the quiet existence he had lived before making Four Corners his home.

"Patterson's place is at least two hours away," Vin added.

"Too far," Spike immediately discounted it. "He wouldn't take the risk."

"There's the Landers," Vin suggested and then his expression became grave.

"What is it?" JD and Chris caught the expression in his eyes. 

"The Landers place is small," Vin said softly, "there's only the four of them. Mr. and Mrs. Landers and their two children."

"That'll be it then," Spike said firmly. "If I know Angelus, he would have checked out the area before he needed the place. Bastard's very thorough that way."

"How far is their spread from here?" Chris asked tautly, aware, as all of them were that the Landers were most likely already dead. 

"About an hour in that direction," Vin nodded towards the west. 

"I say we take the gamble and try for it," Buffy suggested. She thought of that entire family, allowing Angelus and the others into their house, probably thinking it was an act of kindness, unaware that it was probably sealing their doom. Her blood filled with anger and wondered how many others there had been since their arrival in Four Corners. They should not be dead! If it was not for that damn demon, they would not be.

"If it means finding Josiah, what the hell." JD agreed with the young woman who gave him a little smile for his show of support.

"Let's get going," Chris declared. "Don't want to lose any more people than we already have over these damn things."

**********

The screaming hurt his throat but he could not help it.

It was the only way he could keep himself from telling them what they wanted to know. The pain was intense, it swallowed him whole and Josiah wanted only for it to stop. He could feel the blood running down his chest, could feel the blisters on his skin where the poker from the fire had seared his skin, branding him for his inevitable death. His fingernails were broken from digging into the armrest of the chair he was now bound to endure his torture. Not that the fingers they were attached to were of any use either, they too were broken, having been splintered apart by Angelus in the opening act of his torture session. His face felt warm but it was no longer the heat of the open fire warming it, it was hot and flushed because he was in agony.

He swallowed thickly and found that he had no saliva to soothe his sore throat. He wanted to gag but he would spare himself that indignity after letting them hear him scream. The stench of burning flesh, of his burning flesh, filled the air and taunted him with nausea. Josiah knew that he was hurt badly. The vampire Angelus had tried to be subtle at first with his fingers but had soon moved on to more brutal tactics, the fire being the most recent of his suffering. At some point, impatience had driven Angelus to tear through his skin with razor sharp nails and he knew that the slashes across his abdomen were serious cuts for they did not seem to stop the bleeding. Angelus had made him scream with ease but could not make him talk.

His father had always told him he was a stubborn creature that would be bound for hell if he did not learn compliance and obedience. He wondered if Angelus would find it amusing to know that Josiah's father had not been that different from his own. Like Angelus, Josiah had learnt in his own time and way that the good book was a matter of interpretation and both their fathers had got it all wrong. Josiah felt grateful that he was blessed with stubborness because ironically, that quality was keeping him from becoming a creature of hell. 

"You're a tough one preacher," Angelus spoke again, appearing almost as weary by all this as he.

"Maybe he needs to reflect," Darla sauntered over to him. "Perhaps he needs to see things from a different perspective." She reached for his swollen jaw and smiled at him. "You are a strong man, preacher, both in spirit and in body. This does not have to be so brutal, it could even be quite pleasurable."

She lowered her lips to his and took his mouth in a seductive kiss that was more invasive than it was exploratory. Josiah found himself responding a little because despite the coolness of her kiss, there was much passion in it. He wondered how many men had doomed themselves because of their weakness to the power of those lips and the illusion of warmth that it seemed to generate. He wondered if Angelus had been lost that way.

"No," Josiah wrenched himself away from her. "I don't mind dying," he said through his bleeding and cracked lips. "I do mind damning myself to hell." 

Darla's seductive mask changed into an expression of rage to which she expressed by striking him across the face, tearing three deep gashes across his cheek as she did so. "Kill him!" She snarled. "We're not going to get anything from him."

"Leave him to me for awhile," William said confidently.

"Leave him to you?" Angelus looked at the third vampire in the room with blatant skepticism. "Spike my boy, you're even less subtle than I am. What makes you think you can make him talk?"

"You're not having any bloody luck are you?" The younger vampire said snidely. "Let me have a go. What's the worst that could happen?" 

"Not much I suppose," Darla fumed, still smarting from being rejected by a mere human. "I doubt you'd fare any better."

"I suppose there is no harm in it is there?" Angelus looked down upon his lover and caressed her shoulder in an effort to soothe her bruised ego after Josiah's refusal to submit to her charm. "Alright then Spike, see what you can do with him." 

"I'll make him dance to a little tune by the time I'm done with him," William said cockily as his older companions left the room for the time being. William watched them go as Josiah contemplated what fresh hell he was about to face at the hands of this younger, more brutal version of the vampire he had come to know.

William waited until after Darla and Angelus had left the room before he locked the door behind them. Josiah watched the vampire whom he would one day know as Spike and noted that time had done very little to change their mannerism. William moved with the same predatory confidence that Spike did and his hair was a honey blond as opposed to the unnatural white gold that the future version favored. He was dressed in suit instead of being entirely in black although he had discarded the suit coat. He pulled up the chair that Angelus had previously occupied and sat the wrong way on it as he faced Josiah.

"Truth is I couldn't care less about why there's another version of me here," William declared.

Josiah did not speak but was curious as to what he did care about.

"There's strange magic going on here and I don't like it, don't even want to go messing about with it to tell you the truth."

"What do you want?" Josiah asked wearily, wishing he would just get on with it. Conversation was almost as exhausting as the torture, if not more. Conversation required him to think and Josiah did not wish to do that.

"I want to leave here," William stated. "I don't like it much and its playing havoc with Dru. The magic hurts her. I don't want to see her in pain."

Josiah honestly believed the sincerity that William had in his voice when he spoke about the vampire female Drusilla. As he did, Josiah could see that the same deep affection in his eyes that Spike had held for Buffy. Spike, William, whatever he was must have been a contradiction. He was something that could not possibly be but was nonetheless. What was it that allowed him to feel the way he did? That allowed him to transcend the demon impulses within him to feel so much for another being? 

"I can't make that happen." Josiah replied.

"No you can't," William nodded in agreement. "But you can give me the slayer."

The preacher's eyes widened.

"If I get the slayer, I can convince Angelus to leave. Dru had a vision tonight and it scared the hell out of Angelus. He thinks I didn't notice how spooked he was but I did. He's bloody terrified. If I can kill this slayer, then whatever Dru saw will come undone and Angelus will be able to leave this place."

"I can't give you the slayer," Josiah responded.

"No," William conceded that. "But you can tell me where she'll be. Give me that and I'll let you go. I'm not like Angelus, I don't particularly give a bleeding stuff if you're a preacher or not. If you ask me, I think he's got some parental issues that have followed him from his human life."

"You'll let me go?" Josiah stared at him skeptically.

"I'm a vampire of my word," William stated. 

"That's not very reassuring," Josiah said weakly.

"Probably not," William could not blame him for his skepticism. "But that's all you got."

"I have no reason to trust you," Josiah swallowed, something of a plan forming in his mind. It was in all honesty, a long shot but he had to try. The alternative was to remain here and be killed anyway. If given a choice, Josiah would rather die trying for freedom then doing nothing. "You could get what you want and kill me anyway and I doubt that Angelus would allow you to follow through with your end of the bargain."

"Angelus doesn't scare me." William retorted somewhat offended by Josiah's suggestion that he needed Angelus' approval to do anything.

"You can't offer me what you don't have," Josiah replied before looking away, appearing convinced that William was in no position to help him. To a certain extend, he did not think this gamble was going to work but Josiah had no choice but to try.

"I can do whatever I bloody want," William stated, properly annoyed by the fact that Josiah thought him to be weaker and beholding to Angelus. "Look," he reached for the ropes binding Josiah's hands. "I can free you." 

Within a few seconds both of Josiah's hands were free but it would take more than that for Josiah's freedom to come to him. He was not so delirious with pain to not realize that. Sucking a deep breath, feigning relief and compliance, he raised his eyes to the vampire who was looking down at him with a smug expression, gloating over proving Josiah wrong, that he did have the power to free the preacher. 

"I don't suppose I could have a drink of water?" Josiah looked up hopefully.

The vampire considered the request a moment and then retreated to the far corner of the room and poured Josiah a drink from a jug of water that had been left there by the previous owners of the home. He brought the cup to Josiah who raised it to his lips.

"Now preacher," William stated, turning his back on the man as he slaked his thirst. "Give me the slayer or I'll kill you myself."

Josiah wasted no time the moment William's gaze had moved away and offered a silent pray to his God for favor just once more. His hand moved quickly, making the sign he had not made in too long but would make all the difference if his faith still held and as far as Josiah knew this entire situation had only served to make it more iron clad that it had ever been. William noticed the movement but not what Josiah had done, swinging around suspiciously to face the preacher once more.

"What..." he started to say when he realized that Josiah was in the same position he had left him, holding his cup of water and quenching his thirst. Upon realizing that nothing had changed 

"Enough of this," William strode purposefully towards Josiah, preparing to resort to more physical methods of acquiring his information when suddenly Josiah stood up and flung the contents of the jug into the vampire's face. 

William's scream followed Josiah's desperate lunge through the window. The preacher did not care about the damage he would do to himself, interested only in escape. Wood and glass shattered as he passed through the opening into the cool night air, his whole body screaming in protest from the exertion. Josiah did not look behind him to see what had happened to William, knowing only that the drink he had blessed and had turned into holy water was enough to do enough damage to the vampire. Josiah did not know where he was but he knew that his life depended on staying free and in the open until dawn. That was some hours away and the scent of blood would make him easy to track. Unfortunately, he had little choice but to run.

Every step sent a fresh wave of pain through him but Josiah did not look behind as he ran even though he heard more glass breaking in the distance as he left the house behind him. It was not long before he heard William's enraged cry.

"PREACHER!!!!!!!!!!! I AM GOING TO TEAR YOUR BLOODY HEART OUT!" 

Josiah did not doubt him for one instant.

************

"STOP!" Spike shouted as they rode towards the Landers homestead.

Four horses came to a sudden stop, with Buffy clinging on tighter to Spike at the abrupt halt. Chris immediately turned to the vampire wanting to know why they were stopping especially when time was so crucial. The gunslinger was fighting his worst fears that the preacher might already did and any delay in reaching Josiah did not at all sit well with him. Especially when one remembered that death was the not the worst thing that could happen to Josiah tonight.

"What is it?" Chris demanded of Spike.

"Blood," Spike said automatically, looking around the stretch of woods and terrain before him. "I smell blood."

"You said that already," Chris pointed out impatiently.

"I mean a lot of it cowboy," Spike stared at him shortly. "Somewhere close by. The wind's carrying it to me."

"Someone's bleeding," Buffy stated, understanding what the vampire was reaching at. "Human?" She looked at him.

Spike dismounted his animal and helped Buffy out of the saddle. When she was on the ground, he started walking away from the group. The scent of blood was strong and it was texture and salt were unmistakable. After more than a century of breathing it in, there was no mistaking the familiarity of its assault upon his senses.

"Its human and its close," Spike started to follow the scent, the wind was carrying it to him.

"Spike are you sure about this?" Buffy asked uncertainly as she followed him closely. It took less than a second for Chris, Vin and JD to dismount and hurry after them.

"No I'm not," Spike said honestly. "It could be any other human in the area bleeding like a stuck pig. In either case, I don't think you want to be leaving them on their own out here do you, with vampires about? It would be like ringing the dinner bell."

"Could you put that another way?" Buffy retorted when she saw the three men next to her stiffen in reaction.

"Sorry," Spike glanced over his shoulder in what passed for apologetic where he was concerned. "You know what I mean don't you tracker?" 

"Yeah," Vin nodded, understanding perfectly well what the vampire was referring to. He had hunted enough animals in his time to understand the analogy, although he did not like to think of Josiah in that same way. "I know what you're talking about."

"Can you tell how far away he is?" JD inquired, letting his eyes travel across the landscape and through the woods, trying to see this person whom both hoped and feared might be Josiah.

"Afraid not," Spike shook his head in response but he was moving faster, following its path. He could almost feel the fear breathing down his neck and felt relished by the familiar scent of prey. It had been so long. Now that the chip was gone, he could bask in the freedom to feed if he so desired it. All his instincts seemed freed, all the desires he had been suppressing for so long. He had not realized he was running now, that his feet was carrying him forward with surprising speed that the others were running at full speed to catch up with him.

"Spike!" He heard Buffy call but Spike did not answer. The scent of blood was so strong, he could almost taste it. He wanted to taste it. And for the first time in so long, he could taste it if he wanted to. He could even kill. The knowledge that he was freed of that damned chip impacted on him for the first time since all this began. He had wanted it gone for so long but with Buffy's absence from his life, he had not given it much thought but he was free, truly free for the first time in almost two years. He could do whatever he wished and not be preyed by conscience or some foolish hope that a slayer might someday love a vampire.

He was almost euphoric with the realization until suddenly he heard a rustle in the bushes before him and looked up just in time to see a body lunging through the foliage straight into him. Both of them toppled over upon collision, with Spike recovering a good deal faster than the other. The vampire got to his feet quickly, fully aware he had run into the person who emanating that primal scent of blood and fear. It was only when he looked more closely at the man lying on his back, to exhausted to move, with pain etched in his face as markedly as blood was over the rest of his body, did Spike recognize it to be Josiah. 

"Oh hell," Spike sunk to his knees as he stared at the wounds on the preacher's body. He had thought he looked bad after Glory had been done with him but this was worse. "You look bloody awful preacher."

Josiah blinked his swollen eyes and stared at the face he thought to be his pursuer at first but soon realized was not. "I've been better," he whispered through bloody lips.

"You just stay there preacher, helps coming," Spike swallowed, trying to ignore this hollowness in his gut as he called out for the others who had not been far behind him. "Over here!" He shouted into the night before looking down at Josiah once more. Without thinking, he pulled off his jacket and laid it over the fallen man's body, hoping that it would do some good. He had not lied when he said he cared about what happened to this man. Spike had not forgotten Josiah's kindness when they had first met .He saw the preacher, his body broken and bleeding, dying if he was not helped and found himself repulsed by all the feelings he had relished a short time ago. He had been enjoying all those feeling, thinking about all his freedoms now that the chip was gone, never for one moment considering that it was a friend's pain and dying that he was enjoying so immensely.

He shouldn't be feeling this way! He was fucking vampire for Christ's sake! He was not supposed to have conscience or consider humans any more than happy meals on legs as he had once coined the term of feeding. He should not be falling in love with slayers or guarding her life and her existence with his own! What was he? He was certainly no vampire! And after what he had been doing a short time ago, he was no human either. He was a freak who had become neither human nor vampire. Trapped in the limbo that existed between the two, he was doomed to be torn apart for what he was and if he was not careful, he was going to take everyone he cared for into the abyss as well. Just like this preacher and Buffy.

He almost destroyed her because he existed.

"This can't go on," Spike found himself saying almost in a daze, feeling his throat choke with emotion. "I can't go on like this any more."

Josiah looked at him weakly but did not speak.

"I have to stop this," he said in a small voice. "I have to end it here before it gets any worse."

"Spike," Josiah managed to say as he saw Spike retreating away from him. "Where are you going? William, he's still out there."

Spike absorbed the information readily enough, wondering if it was serendipity that made it William the one who had come after Josiah and coming to the conclusion that this would make things considerably easier. "See you around preacher," Spike bid the injured man goodbye, certain that Buffy and his friends would find him soon enough before hurrying down the path Josiah had taken to reach him.

************

"Josiah!" Chris exclaimed when they finally reach the spot where the preacher lay. Josiah was lying flat on his back, his body a multitude of bruises they could see even in the darkness. Chris skidded to the ground next to his injured comrade and felt his stomach knot in horror at the wounds on the man's body and face.

"Oh God," Buffy cried out, as she looked on at the kindly preacher whose calming influence reminded her of Joyce. "Is he alive?"

"Barely," Chris said as he felt Josiah for a pulse. Josiah was appeared unconscious and Chris was hardly surprised that the scent of blood had driven Spike a little crazy. There was more than enough of it spilled by the preacher to ensure that every predator in a ten-mile radius would be making a beeline straight for him had he lain here any longer. "Vin, help me."

Vin did not need to be told because the tracker was already assisting Josiah to his feet. It took both Chris and Vin to use every ounce of strength they had to lift Josiah to his feet. Josiah was all muscle and bulk and he stood almost as tall as Buck but nowhere as lean. He was a solidly built man that had always towered over them but somehow felt frail and insignificant now. That alone inspired the trio's utmost fury with Angelus who had obviously did this to him for information.

"Where's Spike?" JD asked, looking around for the vampire. "Did he just leave him?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," Buffy frowned. However, even as the thought crossed her mind, she knew she was being unfair, Spike had been just as worried as the others over this man's welfare. However, her natural instincts towards the vampire would not be denied.

"Buffy," Josiah started to speak.

"Easy there big fella," Chris responded automatically. "We're gonna get you out of there. Just take a breather."

"No!" Josiah hissed. "Buffy."

"Yes Josiah?" Buffy asked coming closer because she could hear his labored breath and did not wish him to exert himself any more than necessary if he insisted on talking.

"You have to go after him," Josiah grunted through his teeth purposefully. "You have to go now!"

"After Spike?" Buffy did not understand. "Spike can take care of himself. He doesn't need me."

"If you don't go," Josiah looked her in the eye. "He won't need _anything_ ever again."

**********

It did not take Spike to find him.

The vampire was so full of rage that he was screaming angry profanities at the preacher who had tricked into aiding his escape. The scent of blood brought him to Spike as easily as it had brought Spike to Josiah a short time ago. They met in a clearing between the trees, staring at each other through the moonlight, alone for the first time. William's face was wounded, he could see the flesh burnt off in places. Spike was reminded of how he had looked after Buffy had toppled a church on top of him during one of their battles when he was something to be reckoned with, not this pathetic shadow of a vampire. William's injury looked new however and without knowing the details, Spike realized that Josiah had somehow inflicted this upon the vampire.

"You again!" William hissed, his injuries hidden by the vampire visage he had taken upon sighting Spike. "Where is he? Where's that bloody bastard of a priest!" 

"Where you can't get at him," Spike retorted almost wearily. He wanted this over and done with. He wanted it all over. He wanted to be finished. "Was all that your handiwork?"

"No that was Angelus," William hissed as they began to circle each other, preparing themselves for the battle they knew was coming since they laid eyes upon each other. "I'm going to do worse."

"You're going to do nothing," Spike replied shortly. "Everything that you should do, you're not going to. I'm ending it here and now."

"So you are me then?" William taunted, not really listening only wanting to fight. 

"Yeah I am you and I suppose you should know that you had a bloody good run as vampires go, a hundred and fifty years all up human and demon. You had some good times, you made a name for yourself and you stuck with Dru for along time but that was my past and the future you're not going to see. I'm finishing us both now." Spike said softly.

William did not listen because he could not possibly understand and he attacked first. Spike sidestepped him easily, slamming an elbow into the small of his back as he dodged the initial attack. William staggered forward but Spike caught up with him easily enough and threw a kick into the same spot, this time sending him all the way to the ground. The younger vampire landed heavily on his knees, a groan of pain escaping him as Spike slid his arm around his throat and dragged him to his feet again. William clawed at him as Spike held him firm in his grip. This was almost too easy. The fighting techniques Spike had learnt to battle the Slayer he would encounter in China was almost unknown in this day and age especially to William who was still employing Queensbury Rules and did not stand a chance. 

"Sorry mate," Spike whispered as he pulled out the stake he had tucked in his belt when he left Josiah. "This is for the best. Believe me."

William saw the wooden stake and began to struggle harder, desperately trying to free himself from Spike's deadly grip. Spike could not stand to prolong this ugly affair and brought down the stake towards his younger version's heart. Spike closed his eyes, preparing to disappear when the point reached William's heart, hoping that non-existence would be quick and painless as a vampire's death should be.

It did not happen.

Something caught his wrist and kept it from making that final journey through flesh. Spike opened his eyes and found Buffy staring at him, her eyes stricken with shock and horror.

"What are you doing?" She demanded.

"Let it go Slayer," Spike swallowed, cursing the fact that she was here. "Its better for both of us this way. If I'm gone, none of this would have happened. You wouldn't have to worry about getting wiped out of existence."

"You think this is an answer?" She cried out and slammed her fist into his face, forcing him to release his hold of William. The younger vampire stared at them both in confusion, clearly shaken at how close he had come to dying.

"Get out of here!" Buffy hissed angrily. "Get out of here before I finish what he almost did!" 

William stared at Buffy; he was injured and not ready to face another version of himself and a slayer as well, not alone anyway. There would be another time but not today. "Later." He hissed menacingly and ran off into the darkness leaving Buffy and Spike alone.

Spike was on his knees, still holding the stake in his hand when Buffy turned to him. 

"Why did you do that?" He asked dejectedly.

"Why did I do that?" Buffy could not believe he was asking the question. "You were going to kill him!"

"I know!" He shouted. "That was the plan, luv!"

"You were going to kill yourself!" She glared at him, wondering how he could even begin to contemplate suicide. 

"So bloody what?" He stared back at her. "What's it to you if I did? If I had killed myself then all this would be over. The preacher wouldn't be lying back there with his guts almost torn out and you wouldn't have to worry about me killing your great, great grandpa!"

Buffy felt her mind overloaded with disbelief. "You think I want that? You think I want you to die?"

"Why not?" Spike glared at her. "What is there for me? Even if this all works itself out, there's nothing for me back in the future! I'll still be this ridiculous joke trying to cling on to good old days when he used to the Big Bad instead of this neutered animal that nobody wants around! You especially! Damn you Slayer! Why did you have to change the rules?"

"What rules?" She exclaimed in bewilderment. Why did he make things so difficult? "What are you talking about!"

"When you came back," he looked at her with eyes glistening with moisture. "I thought I would die from how happy I was to see you alive. I know you didn't love me, I accepted that because seeing you breathing and walking was like a dream. If I couldn't have you, knowing you were alive was enough. But then you changed the rules, you touched me and we made love. How am I suppose to go back to what it was after that! How am I supposed to be around you knowing that I'm just bloody convenient! I love you. I love you in every way that a man can love a woman but I want to be more than just a shag when you have an itch to scratch!"

"Spike it's not like that!" Buffy tried to explain but could not say very much in her defense. It had been just like that and no matter how much she tried to deny it, she could not make it any less true. She had treated him badly, worse in fact than Parker had ever treated her. At least he had not humiliated her the next day with the unkind words Buffy had delivered to Spike that morning.

"Of course not," Spike replied. "Its just convenient!"

"Spike stop it," Buffy felt herself becoming angry. "We got more important things to deal with."

"You can do them without me," Spike responded. "I'm staying right here."

"What do you mean?" Buffy stared at him before realizing what he was saying. 

"I'm going to see the sun rise." His gaze moved past her towards the horizon.

"Spike get up!" She pulled him to his feet. "You can't do this! I won't let you! I won't have you kill yourself for me!"

"I'M NOT DOING IT FOR YOU!" He shoved her away. "I'm doing it for me! I can't bloody well go on this way Slayer. I can't! It's becoming too hard!"

Tears were running down his pale skin and as she saw him in his misery, she found her own eyes filling with tears because she had driven him to this. Ever since she had returned from the dead, Spike had been there for her. He had helped her through the worst of returning to her life and she had felt drawn to him because he made the emptiness inside her go away. She had used him to feel without any thought as to how it would effect him. When she had made love to him, she had felt something she had never experienced before, an insatiable need she could not quench and she had drunk him over and over that night. In the morning, she had been ashamed that she had succumbed to lust and told herself that he was a demon and it did not matter what he felt or how she treated him.

"Spike, I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. I didn't understand."

He was surprised by the admission because it was the first time she had shown anything resembling real human feeling towards him, other than when he was needed to make her feel whole like that night in that crumbling building. However it was not enough. "It doesn't matter Slayer," he dropped to his knees again. "Its over. I'm finished."

"NO!" She shouted angrily, scrambling to him. "I don't know how I feel about you!" She finally exclaimed as if the words were wrenched from the depths of her. "I don't know if I will ever love you the way you love me but if you do this, we'll never know!"

"Please, let me go," he met her gaze. "I can't stay and wait for you and if you never come around, I'll still have to watch you die and I can't bear that again."

Buffy thought hard. She did not know what to say that could make him want to go on. She felt even worse because she had wanted to die once and his were the only words that had made her choose life. Why could she not do the same for him? How is that he ended being the more caring one in what passed for their relationship? Finally it came to her, what she had to say and it was the only thing she could think of saying because he had spoken it once to her once. She hoped it had the same effect upon him.

"_Life's not bliss, its just this_," she reached for his cheek so that he would face her and started singing softly. "_It's living. You've got to go on living, so one of us is living_."

Spike blinked and heard the words he had once sung to her seep into him. Sure, it did not have the fanfare created by a musical inducing demon but he could see that she was sincere and determined that he lived and that gave him something he had not felt in too long. 

Hope.

"Please Spike," Buffy spoke from the heart this time, not using words that belonged to him. "I don't know how I feel about you but you do fill up a space inside of me and I don't want that to end. Maybe we'll never be more than we are but I do care, perhaps not in the way you want but someday, it could be more. I just need time."

"Time," he snorted and rose to his feet, taking a deep breath. "I've got lots of it."

"Not if the sun comes up," she pointed out with a smile.

"Alright," he conceded defeat. As if he had ever had any chance of defeating her. It was no different than any of their battles. She always won. "Point taken," he sighed. "Let's get under the shade."

"Yeah, let's do that," Buffy smiled, hiding just how relieved she was that she had not lost him. 

Maybe someday she would tell him. 

*************

Listening to them from his hiding place amongst the bushes, Angelus watched Buffy and Spike leave with a smile on his face.

  



	8. Chapter 7

****

Part Seven

Romantics

Little was said about the errand upon which Josiah had sent Buffy in his injured state. The concern when the two finally returned to the lawmen was to make a hasty return to Chris' shack. Vin had already departed with Josiah so he could be treated for his massive injuries. Neither Buffy nor Spike spoke to each other when they rode back and the atmosphere in general was thick with tension. However, despite the silence, the riders were replete with their own thoughts. Chris was concerned about Josiah but his thought centered primarily on what was to be done about this situation. How he could continue to protect an enemy that they could not kill for fear of protecting some future timeline? Somehow, they had to come up with a different way of dealing with these vampires since their present tactics were getting them nowhere. They had to find a way to drive the demons from Four Corners and from Ezra permanently.

Chris glanced sideways at Vin and remembered the tracker had already ridden ahead with Josiah in order to reach Nathan quicker. It felt odd not having Vin by his side but then there had been no avoiding it. Chris, who thought he had seen the depths of human ugliness, had been shocked at Josiah's condition. In every sense of the word, a monster had been unleashed upon him. So far, Ezra, Buck and Josiah had been hurt fighting these creatures and Chris was starting to wonder whether or not it was possible to defeat them, that the danger to the timeline had to be risked by killing one of them. However, once again, he was faced with the frustrating realization that anything that diverted from how it was meant to be could have untold consequences in the future. He liked Buffy. She was a spirited young woman with a terrible burden to bear. The weight of it on her psyche was evident in her eyes and he could not imagine how she endured it. Unfortunately, Giles was correct, the future needed her and her erasure from existence was simply not an option they could risk under any circumstances.

No, the key to this was not defeating the vampires; it was convincing them to leave of their own free will. From what Spike had told him about 'the family', it was clear that Angelus ruled things. If Chris wanted his friends free of this danger, then it was Angelus he was going to have to deal with. From Giles' description, Angelus' reign as a master vampire was bloody and brutal. He did not merely kill his victims, he destroyed them. A creature like this could not be reasoned with, not unless they had something to bargain with. Chris came to the understanding that this situation could only be won with cunning and for him to manage that little feat of magic, he was going to have to know his enemy a little better.

"Tell me about him," Chris broke the silence that rested over them like morning mist. "About Angelus."

Spike looked over his shoulder at Buffy, trying to determine which one of them should answer the gunslinger's question. He knew Buffy would not be anxious to tell Chris all the details about he relationship with Angel, just as Spike was not eager to hear it. It was bad enough knowing that his grandsire was her greatest love and probably always would be without having to endure listening to her describe it from her own lips.

"What do you want know exactly?" Buffy asked first, her brow furrowing at Chris as if he had asked her something really personal. 

"Tell me about him? Who he was, what he's going to be." Chris returned, noticing the tension in her when he asked the question. Suddenly, he was filled with the notion that Buffy and Spike were not telling him all there was to know about Angelus. Even JD shot Chris a doubtful look, revealing that he noticed the hesitation as well.

"I know where he's from," Spike volunteered, more intimate with Angelus' early years than his latter ones. "He was Irish, think he said his name Liam."

"Liam?" Buffy rose a brow in surprise. She had not known that. Of course, Angel did not like talking about his past because inevitably, they would come headfirst into the brick wall that was the subject Angelus and Angel was reluctant to reveal anything about his life as the master vampire. "His name was Liam?"

"Yeah," Spike nodded, hating to talk about his grandsire when Buffy was present. It was bad enough the slayer had such an involved history with Angel but talking about it made Spike uncomfortable, not to mention jealous at her reaction. "He didn't like to talk about his past much. His father was a preacher or something, pretty heavy with the bible I hear. Angelus didn't like him at all, I think he might have killed his father and the entire family."

"His own family?" JD exclaimed aghast with horror.

"Yeah," Spike nodded, remembering that he could not bring himself to show his face to his mother when he had been turned. His mother had loved him and it was enough for Spike that she had lost her son without visiting any further misfortune upon her. However, it was different with Angelus, he had hated his father from all accounts and wanted to prove something to the man. "His father told him he'd amount to nothing, I guess Angelus took that personally."

"That explains why he treated Josiah the way he did. What else?," Chris retorted, having no wish to hear of every bloody detail of his victims. "What is he like?"

"Obsessive," Spike said quickly. "He used to drive his victims insane. For the rest of us, we like the clean kill. We need the blood to feed and that's all there is to it. With Angelus it was more. He killed Dru's family. He drove her mad before he turned her, ironically enough on the day she took her vows to become a nun. He was right bastard back then."

"How come you didn't kill him?" JD inquired, unable to imagine that such evil could lurk in any creature's soul.

"Good question," Spike threw her a nasty smile to which Buffy returned a venomous glared.

"There was a curse," she said softly after a little pause. She did not want to tell Chris about this but he seemed to have a point to his question. "Twenty years from now maybe a little less, he bites a girl in Europe, a gypsy. Her family apparently had something to do with magic and stuff. They put a curse on him. It brings back his soul."

"What does that mean?" JD blurted out with confusion, knowing that it was important but not how.

"When you get turned, your soul is gone and the demon moves in," Spike explained impatiently. 

"In other words, Liam or what was left of Liam, came back?" Chris ventured a guess.

"Yeah," Buffy nodded slowly. "He got his soul back and he had to remember every terrible thing he had done for the last hundred years. He was sorry."

"He was stupid, that's what he was!" Spike barked back in annoyance. "He had nothing to feel sorry for. He didn't do anything! Angelus did it all! He spends the next ninety years trying to make up for something he didn't do. Turns brooding and acting mysterious into an art form. You know what I'm taking about." He gave Chris a look.

"Spike shut up," Buffy snapped. "Look, Angel tried to make amends for what he did. He's still trying."

"So he became good?" JD inquired, fascinated that a soul could return to a body after being driven from it, especially to the creature that had been attempting to kill these past few nights.

"Except for little lapse," Spike glanced at Buffy who swore under her breath for she had no wish to dredge up _everything_ that transpired between her and Angel.

"Little lapse?" Chris stared at them. "What's that suppose to mean?"

Buffy exhaled deeply and supposed that Chris had a right to know since he and his men were doing everything possible to keep her and her ancestor's life safe. "It's the curse that he's under. He only has his soul while he's feeling guilt for the terrible things he did. Once he doesn't feel that way any more, the curse lifts and Angelus is back. Angel tried to make things right by helping me in Sunnydale, fighting evil, we became close."

She raised her eyes to Chris and in one moment of flickering despair, Chris understood everything.

"You fell in love with him and lost him." Chris said simply, sparing her the anguish of saying it. He could not even begin to imagine what the girl must have endured, to give her heart and her soul so some she obviously loved only to have that person snatch away by that very gift. It explained a great deal the sadness that was in her eyes and why she had been so struck when she had first encountered Angelus in this place. Chris knew all about losing the love of one's life and he could tell by the pain reflected in Buffy's eyes now that Angel had been that for her. How must it be for her to watch this earlier version of her love murder and torture so many? It was no wonder she was so afraid of allowing Spike, who adored her, close. 

"Yeah," Spike muttered. "It's a tragedy." 

However, Chris saw through the vampire's sarcasm to recognize the pain he felt of never being sure that he would ever be able to acquire Buffy's love the way Angelus had. Despite the emotional turmoil that the two visitors from the future must have been experiencing, Chris had something of an idea forming inside his head. "What happens to Angelus in the future where Buffy doesn't exist?" He asked Spike, hoping to propel them past this painful subject as soon as possible.

"Oh Peaches stays the same," Spike replied offhandedly. "He's fighting evil, has no idea who Buffy is or the fact that if he met her he could be blissfully happy and that she could bring Angelus back because of it."

"Great," Buffy frowned, uncertain of how to take that.

Spike stiffened in response and Buffy knew instantly that he was hurt. Unfortunately, she knew of nothing she could say that would salve his pain because she would always love Angel in a way that Spike could never hope to understand, no matter how she might care for the vampire in the future. Angel was apart of her and that would never change. He did not look at her and though her arms were wrapped around him as they rode double, Buffy could tell that he was not happy at her touch. She groaned inwardly, wondering where Chris was going with this inquiry. "Is that it?" She stared at the gunslinger with no attempt to hide her discomfiture with the discussion of this particular subject.

"Yeah," Chris nodded slowly, his mind grasping the kernel of an idea that had formed at Buffy's explanation regarding her history with Angelus.

"Was there any particular reason for that question or did you just want to know my deep dark secret for no good reason?" Buffy asked.

"I was just thinking that maybe what Angelus needs to know is the truth." Chris remarked.

"The truth?" Buffy exclaimed as all eyes turned to him.

"Without you," Chris reasoned his idea out loud. "He vanishes in twenty years and never surfaces again, is that right?" He stared at her hard.

Buffy found Chris' gaze uncomfortable and found herself involuntarily flinching under his power glare. The man's eyes were like high-powered sensors that bore into one's soul. The only time she had ever felt this way was with Spike but she had no doubt that the man in black had the same ability to see through her as Spike did. Must be the long, black coat, she thought absurdly to herself. "Unfortunately, yes." She replied. "Did I forget to mention the whole 'I don't want to talk about this deal' with you or are you a son of a bitch most times and couldn't care less?" 

"He's a son of bitch most times," JD added with a grin. "But you get used to him though."

"Thanks," Chris flashed him a look.

"I had to say if for Buck," JD quipped mischievously.

"Fine," Chris grumbled, "The fact is we're not winning any battles the way we're fighting him. We've got to think of something different."

"Like what?" Spike stared at Chris, starting to see that the man might have an idea. 

"Maybe we ought to just tell him that if he kills Ezra, he kills any chance of breaking the curse that might see him back to his murdering demon self."

"Hey," Spike nodded in understanding not to mention admiration, "that's not bad. That's not bloody bad at all."

"He wouldn't go for it would he?" Buffy asked. If it was a question of how Angel would react, Buffy would have no trouble making an informed guess but Angelus was an unknown. All she knew of him was that he was brutal and sadistic, she had no idea how powerful his need for self-preservation might be. As Angelus, he had attempted to open the gates of hell by awakening Acathala. Buffy had no idea whether or not he would be swayed by the possibility of his own demise.

"Not unless we gave him proof," Chris retorted.

"How do we manage that?" JD asked perplexed.

"We could get the witch to do a spell," Spike pointed out. "Something to show him that we're telling the truth."

"It's a plan," Buffy stated with a smile, clearly impressed.

"It's a long shot," Chris confessed because he was playing a hunch. Everything he knew about Angelus gave him a feel for the creature he was dealing with and short of killing him, nothing else they attempted would work except for this. At the moment, Angelus pride was hurt and that was fueling his determination to kill Ezra, without even knowing why. However, if he were to learn that in less than 20 years, he would be imprisoned inside a body possessing a soul, with no relief in sight except for the tragic love its owner would have with Buffy, perhaps, Angelus might see that there were worse things than injured pride.

"Its a better than nothing," Spike commended. "It's bloody better than anything we've come up with so far. I saw how much Angelus hated it when he lost control, he hated being trapped with no way to kill or do the things he did to get his rocks off. Knowing that you're the only way out he has, might actually give him something to think about. Angelus may be a bastard but he's a smart bastard at that."

"Let hope he's smart enough to know what's good for him." Chris retorted.

*************

They reached Chris' shack with the dawn nipping at their heels. Towards the last leg of their journey home, they had hastened their pace considerably in order to reach the shelter before the sunlight harmed Spike. Chris had decided that they would move into town sometime today since there was little reason to use the shack as a hiding place when Angelus knew about it. Besides, things had transpired last night that made their continued stay at the shack somewhat redundant. The most obvious being that Angelus knew where they were. However, with the attacks on Buck and Josiah, Nathan would want to be near his infirmary and Chris believed at this point, that was not a bad idea. However, Chris now wanted to be in a place where Angelus would find them easily, in order to make their plan work. They would have to bring a covered wagon for Spike to travel by day.

When Chris and the others returned to the shack, they saw Ezra and Giles at the front porch, armed with guns and stakes respectively, in case Angelus should attempt to make an encore appearance. Seeing that their friends were safe, the gambler and the librarian abandoned their watch for the moment and joined them inside. Chris found Vin was at what passed for his supper table, having been provided with a hot meal by Tara, who was looking down at the handsome tracker with the same affection that he was giving her. Buck on the other hand was lying on the spare coat, his throat bandaged the way Ezra's was and appeared to be in a fitful sleep.

"How is he?" Chris asked as soon as he and Vin made eye contact.

"Josiah and Mary are with him now," Vin stood up upon seeing his best friend. "We don't know much yet." He confessed.

"What about Buck?" JD inquired as he hurried to the big man's side. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"Yes, fortunately," Ezra replied. "Mr. Jackson tells us that he lost some blood but not enough to impede his recovery once his wounds were treated."

JD lowered himself into a seat next to Buck, resolving himself to remain at his side until Buck woke up. It was not often that JD openly showed his age or his affection for Buck as a paternal figure. However, there was no mistaking it now as he stared in worry at his friend. Chris knew that nothing short of the world coming to an end would remove the young man from Buck's side now. He supposed Vin had the same attitude towards him although their relationship was far different. They were comrades in arms, who understood each other, not the fatherly affection shared between Buck and JD. It was Buck's goal in life to keep JD alive long enough for him to become a man in his own right. At this stage, the boy was all too fired up with romantic notions of what the West was about and there were too many young men like him lying in graves on Boot Hill. 

Chris let out a sigh and poured himself a cup of coffee as the others around him settled in. "We'll get a few hours rest and then move out. We're heading back to town."

"Hallelujah!" Ezra cried out with relief. "Finally a sensible suggestion."

"I thought the plan was to stay out of sight?" Giles spoke up.

"Not much point to it Watcher," Spike retorted. "Peaches knows where we are and the cowboy here has a plan."

"Oh you're a dead man," Vin retorted automatically as he saw the scowl on Chris' face.

"I'm already a dead man," Spike returned, a little bewildered by the tracker's remark.

"You'll be a deader one if you don't stop calling me cowboy," Chris growled in a response that was worthy of any vampire.

"Yeah," Buffy nudged him in the ribs before glancing at Chris, "just call him Billy Idol."

"I am not like Billy Idol!" Spike glared at her.

"People!" Giles burst out in a loud voice. "I think we are losing focus here!"

"Thank you," Ezra retorted gratefully at the librarian, glad that he was not the only adult in the room. "You have a plan Chris?"

"Yeah," Chris nodded shaking his head of their previous conversation. They were all tired and biting at each other but he needed to tell the others present what he had had planned in order to see if it was possible. "I got something of a plan, not sure how it will work though."

"We need your help Tara," Buffy replied.

"Me?" Tara's eyes widened.

"She's done enough," Vin countered. "These spells or whatever they are, they hurt her! When she brought you back, she was knocked out from the trying. I don' think she should keep doing them."

Buffy glanced in Spike's direction regarding the vehemence of Vin's protectiveness for the young Wiccan. She knotted her brow in confusion because if she did not know better, she would say that there was more than just a general feeling of concern motivating Vin. Spike shrugged, a gesture she knew to mean they would discuss this later because now was not the time. Buffy turned back to Vin, preparing to say something about Tara being the only one who could do this when Tara spoke up herself and ended any need on Buffy's part to speak for her.

"Vin," Tara placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, feeling her heart swell at his concern for her. "They wouldn't ask me if there were any other way. I want to hear what Chris has in mind."

"Are you sure?" Vin stared at her worriedly. He didn't know anything about magic but he had seen the effect it had upon her after she performed the spell to bring Buffy to the past. He could not help being afraid for her life if she continued.

"Yes," she kissed him gently on the cheek, drawing an expression of surprise from the tracker who seemed embarrassed by the action. The others in the room averted their eyes and tried to focus their attention elsewhere as the young couple took a moment for themselves. After a few seconds, Tara faced Chris again.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked.

Chris saw the troubled expression on Vin's face but knew they had no choice. The plan he had was already a gamble to succeed, they needed some assurance and unfortunately, Tara seemed the only one who could provide it. He explained to her what needed to be done and she listened intently, her concentration wavering only when Giles, Vin and Ezra chose to comment because they were in the dark about Chris' plan as she. What he was proposing was difficult but it was no harder than anything else she had to do since this had all began. Besides, the spell he wanted was no less complicated then the one that had brought Buffy here from the future and if all went well, then the situation in Four Corners would be resolved once and for all.

"Can you do it?" Chris asked when all was explained to her.

Tara considered the question for a moment. "Yes," she nodded. "I think I can."

"Are you sure Tara?" Giles looked at her with concern. He knew that they had been using her magical abilities more than they should and he hated asking for its assistance again but Chris was right, this plan as risky as it was had a chance of working.

"I'll be fine," Tara assured her.

"Young lady, "Ezra spoke up. "As much as I would like to be free of this burden of being the one to sire the slayer, I do not wish it to take place at the cost of someone else's well being."

"The lady said she's fine already!" Spike groaned at all this talk. It was not as if they had not been told numerous times already. Besides, they didn't have a choice in the matter and the witch seemed more acceptable of that fact then everyone else around her. 

"Spike, I could slap you." Buffy rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Steady there love," he smiled cockily at her. "We'll play later."

Buffy's jaw dropped open in outrage but she had no chance to tell Spike what a pig she was because Nathan emerged from the next room with Mary at his side. The healer kept the door behind him closed, indicating that he wanted no one to disturb the preacher while he recovered. However, that did not mean he was not inundated with questions about Josiah's welfare as soon as he was seen. Heading these demands for information was Chris and Spike, both equal in their concern and their guilt for Josiah's current state.

"He's gonna be okay," Nathan said first and foremost, drawing a collective sigh of relief from those who knew the preacher well and those who had only recently come into his knowing. "He's been hurt pretty bad. If we hadn't found him when we had, he'd be dead by now. There's lot of cuts and burns, Angelus apparently was at it for quite some time. He's sleeping now and I suggest we leave him be for the next day or so. I don't think he had can handle travelling just yet."

"I'll stay with him," Spike offered. 

"Not for long," Chris retorted and saw Nathan starting to protest but he cut off anything the healer was going to say, "Nathan I want Josiah and Buck back in town. We got something planned and its going to be risky as it is without us being scattered all over the place. So Spike can stay with Josiah for awhile until we ride into town for a wagon. Then we'll move both Buck and Josiah. Is that clear?"

Nathan frowned unhappily but he conceded to the gunslinger's order. "Alright but I want to stay here with them."

"You can keep me company," Spike grinned, enjoying taunting the righteous healer to no end. "We'll have loads of fun." 

"Oh hell, kill me now," Nathan groaned.

"Don't worry," Buffy quipped. "I'll leave you Mr. Pointy." She produced her lucky stake and winked at the healer. "You can stake him if he gets too much for you."

"The rest of us," Chris spoke loudly to get their attention back on the subject at hand. "We'll head back to town. Mary, can the girls stay with you for the day?"

"Sure," Mary smiled warmly at Tara and Buffy. "You can clean up and get some rest."

"That would be good," Buffy replied. "It feels like the day hasn't ended." In truth, it had not. The night seemed endless to her after being spirited away from the future to this recent past, then encountering her ancestor and dealing with Angelus' attacks on his friends, not to mention keeping Spike from committing suicide, at the very least a few hours sleep was not much to ask. "If you could just wake me before the night time, that would suit me fine."

"I think we can manage that," Mary replied, "I could use some sleep myself."

"Well it's settled then," Chris declared, glad that this part of the plan was met with approval. "We ride at first light."

***********

  
A short time later, the group was ready to ride to town and Buffy found herself saying a quick goodbye to Spike before they parted company for a while. Neither had spoken much about what had happened when they were alone tonight but it hung in the air, like a pregnant drop of water about to fall. She wondered why she had not let him do what he intended, knowing her life might be a lot less complicated because he was not in it. However, even as the thought crossed her mind she remembered what it was like to make love to him, the raw, unbridled passion he inspired in her that made her feel more terribly alive then she had felt since her resurrection. A part of Buffy knew that it was more than just lust that had made their coupling so wonderful. There was something more that made her feel safe in his arms that told her without doubt that he would never hurt her, would never leave her and he would die for her if he had to. 

She had craved all these things from Angel and still he had left her, never giving her a choice in what was best for her own happiness. She had sought the same thing from Riley even though she felt less for him than the confused feelings she had for Spike and he too had gone. Spike would never leave, not as long as there was hope that she might love him back. It was a good feeling to know that his heart was so much in her keeping, even if she did not know what she intended to do with it. They all knew he loved her because he had come all this way to rekindle her existence, even at the cost of his freedom as a vampire. It surprised her to see the admiration in their eyes for him, even from Giles because a vampire would do so much for the slayer he loved.

"You gonna be okay here by yourself?" She asked quietly as the others prepared to leave, conscious that they might be watching her.

"Sure," Spike answered, somewhat surprised by the warmth in that inquiry. "I'll just keep the healer on his toes." A perfectly mischievous smile crooked the corner of his lip.

"Leave the man alone," Buffy replied, unable to keep from being affected by his mood. "He's got enough troubles."

"And you?" He looked at her with concern. "You gonna okay with your great, great grandsire?" 

Buffy cast a glance over her shoulder at Ezra who was slipping on his red coat, unaware that she was stealing a glimpse at him. "Yeah, I can't believe I'm related to that guy but I should be okay."

"He's a good bloke," Spike pointed out. "A little wordy but his hearts in the right place most of the time, when its not in his wallet."

"Maybe he used to be part vengeance demon," she joked, recalling how Anya, Xander's fiancée who upon leaving her vocation as a vengeance demon had developed a voracious appetite for money and the acquiring of it.

"I don't think he's quite _that_ bad," Spike joked.

"Is it me," Buffy replied as she noticed Vin and Tara in deep conversation, "or is Tara a little friendlier with Vin then she ought to be?"

"Its not you," Spike sniggered. "I reckon the tracker makes the witch hot."

"Ugh!" Buffy glared at him for his choice of words, "can you be any more tactless? Maybe Tara's being nice. You might have warned him that she's gay." She pointed out.

"Luv," Spike stared at her, "in this age, he wouldn't even know what that means."

"Well explain it," she said impatiently, not wishing Tara to be placed in an awkward position because of Vin's affection. Besides, she was being seriously freaked seeing Tara with anyone else other than Willow. Ironically a few years ago, she would have been freaked about seeing Willow with another woman but then no more than Willow would be if she knew what Buffy and Spike had been getting up to lately.

"Explain it to him?" Spike raised a brow. "I don't fancy getting shot pet. Bullets may not kill me but it will still bloody hurt. Besides, you don't talk about that sort of thing in this time, especially to men who used to shoot people for looking at them cross eyed. Its all meant to be in the closet unless of course you're French although in France who could tell? They all sound like a bunch of poofs anyway."

"Once of these days I'm gonna have to get you to explain to me this thing you Brits have with the French." Buffy remarked and leaned forward, planting a soft kiss on his lips, uncertain of why until she had done it.

Spike stared at her for a moment because it was so personal, like something one would do to a person who meant a great deal to them. "What was that for?" He asked mystified.

"I don't know," Buffy shrugged, wishing he would not pay so much attention to it. It was not as if she had never kissed him before. She had just felt like it. "Just don't get too used to it."

"I know, I know," Spike rolled his eyes but he could not deny his heart was dancing. "You won't ever do it again."

"Yeah," Buffy said coyly as she drew away from him. "Just as long as you know."

**********

As the procession returned home to Four Corners, Chris found himself inching his horse along side of Mary's. So much had happened in the last few hours that they had barely a chance to talk about what was happening. Chris could not believe she had ridden all that way to warn him of Angelus. She had to know that the vampire might still come after her once she had breached the safety of her home and left herself wide open to his attack. Of course he knew she cared, even if she did not say it out loud. He felt it and he hoped that she knew the feeling was mutual. 

"It's been a long night," Chris said as they rode alongside each other.

"To say the least," Mary smiled at him. "I think I will be glad when things return to normal although this whole thing has been educational."

"I don't know if I would call it that," Chris said dryly. "I don't think I wanted this much of a glimpse into the future."

"I'm wagering, neither does Ezra," Mary glanced at the gambler who was riding double on Chaucer with Buffy. Both of them looked so much like each other and yet seemed poles apart. Mary could not imagine how Buffy could be Ezra's progeny. The young woman seemed so terribly serious when she should have been at an age where life was just beginning. 

"Mary," Chris looked at her seriously. "I'm grateful you came after me. It was downright foolish and dangerous but I'm glad you did."

Mary looked as if she might protest but instead settled down to accept his gratitude more graciously, "you're welcome." She smiled. "For some reason you're the only person I know who can make enemies anywhere, even supernatural ones." She teased.

"Well its a talent," Chris said with a straight face before breaking into a grin.

"Any other talents I should know about?" Her brow raised in question.

"A few," he grinned. "But I think we should get to know each other a little better first." 

"Mr. Larabee, I am intrigued." Mary laughed not at all disturbed by the suggestion in that statement but then she had always walked the dark side when it came to her feelings for him. "Why don't we try supper first?" 

And for the first time, Chris found that he was amenable to the idea. "That sounds nice Mary," he said honestly, realizing in recent days that it mattered telling the ones you cared about how much they meant because it so much worse if they did not exist at all.

**********

"They're so into each other," Buffy remarked as she rode behind Ezra, glancing in Chris and Mary's direction.

"If you mean there is a certain chemistry between Mr. Larabee and Mrs. Travis, I dare say that you are right," Ezra agreed. Buffy was not the first person to speculate about the relationship between the gunslinger and the newspaper editor. The rest of the seven had done it on occasion with Buck even making some pathetic attempt to play matchmaker that ended with him having half his moustache shaved off by one very irate Mr. Larabee. It was the last time Buck made such an effort even though he had been properly warned by the others that things with Chris and Mary would progress when they were ready for it to do so.

"So what's stopping them?" Buffy asked. It was the first time she and her ancestor had engaged in any real conversation since her arrival. Even now, she felt uncomfortable that it was he she was riding with and not Spike. She kind of liked how it felt to hold Spike on horseback because there was a romance to the whole thing that she would die before she confessed to the vampire. 

"Well Chris lost his wife and son some years ago in a fire and I do not think he's quite recovered from that loss," Ezra explained.

__

So that's it, Buffy thought to himself. That's why he looked so sad when he thought no one was noticing. Buffy did not know what it was to lose someone in that way but she knew something about loss and could understand Chris' reluctance to give his heart away again. "It takes a long time."

"I do not doubt that but sometimes, one has to take a gamble." Ezra pointed out.

"I don't gamble," Buffy retorted. "I can't afford to."

"I noticed that," Ezra replied and noticed Buffy stiffening immediately.

"What does that mean?" She demanded huffily. "I'm the Slayer! I can't take chances or people will die. People have _died_. You have no idea what my life is like."

"Rather sensitive on the issue aren't you?" Ezra remarked innocently.

"I can't help it," Buffy felt a little embarrassed for that outburst. "You have no idea what I've been through."

"I don't doubt that," Ezra agreed. "But you if you would care to take some advice from someone who has lived in difficulty, I can tell you that it gets no easier. Sometimes it becomes more impossible than you can believe but that is life my dear, it is not made to be easy or difficult. It just is."

"Can argue with you there," Buffy sighed in agreement.

"He loves you, you know." 

Buffy's eyes opened with surprise not expecting him to say that. "That's none of your business," she retorted hotly after a moment.

"Perhaps not but it is true. I am aware of what he is and as much as I dislike the fact that one of my descendants might find happiness with one of his kind; I also have to remember that you are the Slayer. Mr. Giles tells me that it is your vocation until you die from it, that there is no release from the duty. Life is short my dear girl, even more so for you. How you chose to live it is entirely up to you and I do not think that you should be burdened by the path of those who came before you. Live your life, as you would choose not as anyone expects you to live it. I followed my mother's path because I did not think I could be anything else," Ezra retorted, pausing a little when Maude's name came into it. "It never occur to me that I could be anything that I wished, not until it was too late. My course has brought me to Four Corners and I have a second chance of being something better, something happier, I would give you the same advice."

"You want me to love Spike?" Buffy demanded, incensed that he could ask of that of her when he knew nothing about what Spike had been and how he had tried to kill her. 

"No," Ezra shook his head and revealed he was capable of a few surprises still. "I want you to let him go if you do not."

"What....." Buffy gasped.

"You heard me," Ezra said sharply, unaware that he was rekindling a memory of a similar conversation Buffy had once shared with Xander on the subject of Riley. "If you love him, embrace what he offers you for I have no doubt that he would surrender everything for you and love like that, is fleeting and it is precious, no matter what the source. There are those who spend their whole lives searching for that feeling and never find it. However, if you do not love him, let him go. He is tortured by the unknowing. Anyone can see that. He lingers in hope because you give some semblance of it and that binds him to you."

"I don't know how I feel about him," she responded weakly. 

She had not been able to talk to anyone regarding her feelings about Spike. She was certain that anyone in Sunnydale she confided to about their relationship would undoubtedly be horrified that she was even considering the idea. After all, Spike had been her mortal enemy for so long and his murderous impulses were only kept in check by the chip that was presently in his head. Willow had so many troubles on her plate at the present that Buffy could not bring herself to burden her best friend with her confidence and Xander? Xander barely tolerated Spike at all and the mere suggestion of there being a relationship between her and the vampire would most likely cause Xander to stake Spike just to save her from herself. If Giles were here, perhaps she might confide in him but Giles, not the one who was talking with Tara and Vin as they rode to town, the father figure who had been her tower of strength for most of her teenage years, was gone. Still, it did feel good to talk to Ezra about it and it appeared as if he really wanted to listen.

"All I know is that lately, he seems to understand the things I go through better than anyone else. He's taken care of Dawn and protected her. I know that if anything happened to me he would continue to look out for her."

"It appeared that your relationship might be closer than that." Ezra pointed out, not wishing to say outright that he noticed their intimacy but not wishing to ignore that fact either since they were having this honest discussion.

Buffy knew exactly what he meant and while her cheeks flushed with embarrassment at his discovery of their sexual proclivities towards one another, it also felt liberating not having to lie about that either. "He makes feel alive," she admitted. "I don't know why but he does. When I'm with him I don't feel so empty but it makes me feel ashamed."

"Because he is a vampire and a killer?" Ezra asked.

"Yes," Buffy nodded somberly but knew she was not being fair on Spike. She had loved Angel even though he had done far worse as Angelus. "I don't know. I've loved someone else who had for a time been far worse than Spike but this is so confusing."

"Maybe this has little to do with him and everything to do with you," he pointed out, sensing her insecurity. "Perhaps if you allow yourself to care for Spike you might find yourself completely lost in him and that frightens you."

"I'm not afraid," Buffy pouted but she knew he was not far wrong either.

"Of course you are," Ezra brushed aside that remark because he knew better. "You would not be human unless you were."

"I'm not quite human," she reminded. "I'm the slayer and what about you? How come there's no woman in your life? How am I supposed to get born if you don't even a girlfriend?" She asked, unable to deny that she felt a little better even if nothing had been resolved. Still, talking about it to someone had been liberating. 

"The right woman will come along in due course," Ezra chuckled, glad that he was able to give her something to think about. "And if I am at all lucky, she'll be filthy rich."

"Superficial much?" Buffy retorted in disapproval. "I thought you old fashioned guys liked to bring home the bacon."

"I am not chauvinist my dear," he grinned. "If you had time I'd introduce you to your great, great, great grandmother Maude and you'll see that you come from a long line of headstrong women. Besides I have no difficulty being kept."

"Ewww!" Buffy laughed, smacking him on the shoulder. "You're setting me up for severe dysfunction here, Ezra. Making me think about my ancestors having anything to do with sex or being kept is giving me the serious wiggies."

"Obviously resulting in your massacre of the English language," the gambler retaliated dryly.

"We're a lot more hip in the future," she declared. "Most of the time when a guy likes a girl, he just goes up to her and says – hey you have a thing, I have a thing, let's do the thing together." She burst into a wide grin as he looked over his shoulder at her.

"Thank god for the times I live in," he shook his head in disapproval. "Although I suspect that if given the choice, Mr. Wilmington would love it."

"Why?" She asked curiously. 

Her interaction with the seven men had been limited. Most of her time had been spent in the company of Chris Larabee, a serious brooder who would give Angel a run for his money, if the chance for such competition were ever had. However, the man had a presence about him, a grim determination that demanded obedience and loyalty from those who followed him. Even Buffy was not immune to it. She could tell that the men he rode with would follow him through any calamity because he was their undisputed leader. 

Vin on the other hand, was a tragedy waiting to happen. Buffy wondered if the tracker had any idea of how things would be if they succeeded in this plan to rid Four Corners of the 'family'. The time line would repair itself and the Tara he knew would disappear. Giles had spoken to her about the consequences of what they were attempting to do and though Buffy did not like this at all, there was nothing they could do to change it. Tara and Giles would have no idea that anything had happened when they finally returned to the future. In fact, the only one who would be hurt by all this was Vin. Tara would have no memory of him because she never met him. Vin seemed like a nice guy who did not give his heart often and Buffy could tell that this was going to hurt him a great deal.

Buffy still had difficulty believing that this gambler with his airs and erudite speech, who put even Giles to shame at times, was related to her. He just seemed so unlike her and yet in the last few minutes, she had found it easier to confide in him then anyone else in recent months, except for Spike of course. However, he had also given her food for thought especially about her relationship with the vampire. She had no idea what her feelings towards Spike were yet but she could not deny that whatever they might, she was afraid of losing herself in Spike. It was an easy thing to do when the passions he awakened in her ran so hot. Still it had been good being able to talk about Spike to someone who would not judge her and she wondered what fate had in store for the gambler in the future. If she ever returned home, she was determined to find out.

"Short, sweet and crass is Buck's way. I am sure he would be as successful with women in your time as he is in Four Corners." Ezra retorted.

"Quite the ladies man huh?" Buffy guessed by his remark.

"To put it mildly," he said sarcastically.

"What about you?" She asked, "you're sort of okay looking for an older guy and that accents got to be a trip. How come you don't have a girl friend yet? You know you need one if I'm gonna get born." She teased.

"Older guy?" Ezra cast her a look. "I'm only a decade or so older than you, my dear."

"Sorry," she chuckled. "So how come you're not attached? I thought you were supposed to marry young in this age."

"I am not one to jump quickly into my relationships. I am certain when the future Mrs. Standish comes along, I shall know her."

"Why great, great, Grandpa Ezra," Buffy grinned, enjoying the frown that appeared on his face at that description. "You're a romantic."

Ezra stiffened. "I am not."

"Are too," she insisted. "You talk about your true love being rich and all but you're really a romantic!"

"Stop that," Ezra grumbled. "Stop that immediately or I shall ride to a monastery and live out my life as a monk."

"Great, great grandpa's a romantic," she continued to tease in a sing song voice with Ezra shaking his head in annoyance and muttering under his breath;

"Never a vampire around when you need one." 

*********

"We should have left," Darla stated within the confines of the Landers home at the same time the Slayer was torturing her ancestor. "Now we're confined here until dark."

"It doesn't matter," Angelus said confidently even though the events of the night had hardly been of his choosing. William was at the moment nursing some rather bad burns to his face because of Holy Water, an occurrence that Angelus believed he wholly deserved for allowing their prisoner to escape. Still, Angelus could not deny confessing a certain admiration for the preacher and his escape. He would have never have thought that Josiah would be sly enough to turn a cup of water into a weapon. 

"Doesn't matter?" Darla stared at him in astonishment, unable to believe he was underestimating their situation or the threat that they now found themselves in. "They'll come back here during the day now that they know where we are."

"They can't kill us," Angelus said with a confident smile as he sat comfortably in the wing chair within the parlor of the house. "Did you not notice that?"

"What do you mean?" Darla asked not understanding. 

She paced the floor before him impatiently, waiting for an answer and wondering how this situation could have escalated to what it was. They should have left days ago, not remained, attracting more and more attention. As strong and capable as they were, vampires thrived in anonymity and this exposure made her uncomfortable. It was bad enough that Angelus was known as the Scourge of Europe and that their constant travelling was necessitated by his brutal and sadistic murders. He was never satisfied with victims that no one would miss. He wanted challenges and his efforts to play with his latest obsession before the kill had given him a particularly fearsome reputation known by those who did not even wish to believe in the existence of vampires.

"When they fought us, there were moments when they could have killed us and yet they did not. Do you not wonder why?" Angelus responded.

"Because we are better than them," Darla hissed in answer, as if there was any reason to think anything else.

"You and I perhaps," Angelus was willing to concede. "But Drusilla and Spike are younger, they don't have the skill we do. Larabee could have staked him through the heart but he was careful not to. I wondered why at the time and last night when I followed William and the preacher, I overheard the Slayer and the one that looked like William. It makes perfect sense."

"It does?" Darla wished he would hurry up and explain. She did not like riddles.

"Yes," Angelus grinned. "They're from the future and they can't kill us because we have something to do with them in the future."

"You mean, someday Spike will turn against us?" Darla exclaimed in shock. "I don't believe it."

Spike was young, brash, fearless and savage but he was not traitor. The only thing that made him different from any vampire she knew was his love for Drusilla. Vampires were not meant to lose their hearts to another as Spike did for Drusilla. While Darla felt deeply for Angelus, they both knew that if either of their existence were threatened, it would be anyone's guess who would sacrifice each other for their own self-preservation. That was the way of things and it was expected. However, Darla noted that it was not so for Spike, the opposite, in fact. Spike would give up his life for Drusilla. Darla suspected that more of his human soul remained than was normal although how that had come to be was anyone's guess. Perhaps the demon that inhabited his body had found kinship with the human he had been and they had forged some kind of alliance.

"Believe it," Angelus retorted, remembering the conversation between the slayer and Spike's older version. It was precious. "He falls in love with a Slayer."

Darla's eyes widened. "With a slayer?" The very notion was absurd. "How can that be! It's not natural!"

"I do not know," Angelus confessed. "However, they need to keep us away from Standish because he is sire to the slayer that has come to Four Corners from the future. That is why they are so keen to protect. If we kill him, then she dies."

"And this other Spike?" Darla asked, trying to wrap her mind around this incredible tale.

"He came to stop his younger self, our Spike, from killing Standish, so that she could live. However, we have some part to play with all of them someday because they cannot kill us. If we were to kill our Spike, the one from the future would die too." Angelus explained, loving the delicious irony of it all.

"He was always a romantic," Darla shook her head in disgust. "We have to do something. Drusilla said this Slayer was going to take you and William away from her and see me dead. I won't allow that." She stared at Angelus purposefully, demanding compliance in this matter.

"Neither will I my darling," Angelus rose to his feet and crossed the floor to reach her. Placing a gentle hand on her shoulder to still her pacing, he lowered his lips to hers and devoured her mouth with hungry passion. For a few seconds, Darla reacted in the only way she could, becoming lost in the power of his sensuous lips. He kissed her hard and forcefully before sliding his lips to her ear and whispering. "We're going to Four Corners tonight and we're going to find them all. We won't let the Slayer tear us apart. Even if we have to kill everyone in that damn town to do it. I promise you that me love."

Darla listened dreamily, allowing him to undo the laces behind her dress and savoring the feel of his palm as it met bare skin. "I hope so," Darla murmured mistily, "its not like we have never done it before."

"Aye," he replied sliding towards the join between her neck and her shoulder, delighting in the alabaster cream of her skin before he slid off her dress. "And this time, we have the blood of a slayer to sweeten the experience and rid ourselves of William once and for all."


	9. Chapter 8

****

Part Eight

Destiny

When Josiah finally woke up, he discovered that he was rather grateful to find the vampire looking over him was Spike, not William. The vampire was staring into the sunshine that was beyond the corner he was sequestered admiring the daylight like a man thirsting for water he could never drink. Josiah wanted to speak but the urge to do so was momentarily swept away by the pain that coursed through his body when it remembered the trauma it had been forced to endure. Josiah sucked in his breath audibly as he closed his eyes and tried to force the pain to recede to manageable levels. His slight reaction was not enough to escape the notice of a vampire with heightened senses and Spike's immediately averted his eyes from the reach of the sunshine back to the man whose bed he had been sitting next to most of the night, keeping a vigil

"Settle down preacher," Spike warned gently as he saw Josiah's face twist in pain. "You're not doing yourself any bloody favors by getting worked up."

"I'm alive," Josiah grunted through his teeth, "I think I've used up all the favors I've got to manage that."

"Yeah," Spike nodded in understanding. He could smell the fresh blood even through the bandages, despite Josiah's wounds being cleaned and treated. "I won't argue with you there, it looked pretty rough."

"Buck?" Josiah turned an eye towards him and raised himself out of his bed, despite the pain of effort. "Is he alright?" The last thing Josiah remembered of the ladies man was his cries as the other vampires were attacking him. He prayed Buck had fared better than he.

"He's alright," Spike quickly reassured him with a cool hand on the man's shoulder. There was just enough strength behind his touch to indicate to Josiah that was as much movement as he was allowed from his bed. "Your healer patched him up right and proper. Just like you. Pretty handy bloke for someone who hasn't spent a day in medical school."

Josiah let out a sigh of relief upon learning that Buck had survived the night. There was an instant there when Buck was genuinely fearful that he might not. "I'm glad to hear that."

"I take it Angelus did this to you." It was not a question and it was spoken with such cold fury that for a moment Josiah might have been forgiven for thinking that it was Chris Larabee that uttered the question.

"Yeah," Josiah answered after awhile, his stomach knotting at the memory of pain and the fear he had felt. Even though he had held up bravely against the Master vampire, he could not deny that he had been frightened for his immortal soul throughout the entire ordeal. If Angelus had threatened to turn him, Josiah was not certain he would not have succumbed to save himself. It was fortunate that William had made his play when he had. Josiah did not know how much longer he could have prevailed.

"Bastard," Spike hissed under his breath. "You have any idea how lucky you are to be alive?"

"I got some idea," Josiah met his gaze. "He alive in your time?"

"Yeah," Spike nodded. "But if it makes you feel any better, the pillock gets his soul back in about 20 years. Put a right stop on his murdering and puts him on the road to redemption for the next 100 years. Spends most of it trying to make up for all the death he caused."

"I guess everyone has to pay penance some time," the preacher mused taking in that bit of news. 

"I'd prefer him a pile of ashes myself but that will do for now," Spike replied. 

"I'm glad to see you're still around," Josiah remarked as he relaxed into the soft mattress of his bed, determined to remain as still as possible so the pain would subside to tolerable levels. "You gave me the impression that you might not be."

Spike shifted uncomfortably in his chair, unhappy that Josiah had brought up that subject. A part of him still was uncertain whether or not it might have been the best thing all around if he had allowed himself to die as intended. Spike had no doubt that it was Josiah who sent Buffy after him and Spike did not know if he ought to be grateful or not. There was something overwhelmingly comfortable about disappearing into nothingness, to be free of this ache for Buffy that would never go away even if she continued to have sex with him. To Buffy, it was just sex, an exchange of pleasure that meant nothing. To him, it was a physical expression of his deep abiding love for her. The one was not equal to the other and he did not know how long he could continue to go on with her feeling less for him than she would feel for any stranger.

"I'm belong to her," Spike said quietly. "Even if she doesn't want me."

"It might not always be that way." Josiah reminded, seeing an agony more intense than his present discomfort, appear in Spike's expression. 

"I have to decide soon," Spike swallowed thickly. "I can't go on this way."

"I know," Josiah said sympathetically. "I wish I knew what to say."

A small smile crossed Spike's lips, "the listening helped." 

"I used to be pretty good at it," Josiah muttered returning the effort with one of his own.

"Don't say?" The vampire crooked a brow at him before adding, "I'm sorry about all this."

"Not your fault," Josiah retorted giving him a look. "You weren't the one who did this to me."

"I had a part in it," he confessed. "If it wasn't for me, none of this would have happened."

"You were trying to help her," Josiah replied firmly with what strength he had. "You shouldn't have to be sorry because an act of kindness was repaid with vengeance."

"You're bloody forgiving for a man of the cloth," Spike pointed out. "Preachers back in my day weren't so friendly, always raining fire and brimstone and filling up the coffers at the same time. Never had much time for it when they were preaching."

"I've been in need of forgiveness myself," Josiah admitted. "I won't cast the first stone, not from my glass house." 

"Josiah!" Nathan voice filled the room with exuberance. "Thank Chris you're awake, now I can stop talking to him." The healer gave Spike a look of mischief. "I never thought I'd say this but he's even more annoying than Buck."

"Now that's harsh!" Buck Wilmington croaked as he stood by the doorway. The tall man had a bandaged wrapped around his throat and appeared weak. Spike immediately got off his chair and gestured at Buck to plant himself into it. Once again giving the ladies man a fierce enough stare to ensure he was to be obeyed on this point.

"He's just angry because I said he was pretty," Spike grinned at Nathan.

"Well you are kind of," Buck teased. Not even a near fatal injury was enough to keep Buck Wilmington from remaining in bed once he heard Josiah had returned to the land of living. 

Nathan had appraised him of what had happened to the preacher since he was injured and secretly Buck cursed his own stupidity for allowing himself to be swayed by Darla. Josiah was alive, no thanks to him and the least Buck could do was tell the preacher to his face, how grateful Buck was to see him in one piece. In truth, he had suffered much worse injuries in his time. When he had been hurt in the Seminole village, he had managed to ride all the way back to Four Corner, even though that crazy Confederate colonel had come damn near to spilling his guts all over the ground. 

"It ain't wise to mess with your healer," Nathan pointed out as he went to Josiah and made a perfunctory examination of the man. 

"Then it's a good thing I'm not hurt," Spike flashed him a devilish smile. "That means we can spend so much more quality time together."

"Don't bet on it," Nathan glanced over his shoulder. "Buffy left me Mr. Pointy."

"Please tell me that's a stake," Josiah drawled and sent Buck into a chortling fit, something which the man regretted doing because his throat was still rather tender.

"She named her stake?" Buck managed to say.

"The Slayer's got all sorts of strange habits. Sleeps with something called Mr. Gordo too." Spike added and knew the Slayer would be thrilled to learn that he had shared that with these men.

"Mr Gordo?" Nathan was almost afraid to ask.

"It's a doll." Spike informed dutifully.

"She a strange little girl," Buck confessed shaking his head. 

"You have no idea," Spike sighed. "Not a bleeding one."

***********

Time was running out for them and they both knew it. The future that had seemed so distant when this had all begun had suddenly hastened its pace and now they were faced with it, with nowhere to turn. At first Vin did not think it was possible to care for someone in so short a space of time but the truth was, he was lost in the feeling long before he realized the extent of his affections. Despite his usually serene and unflappable manner, Vin ached inwardly knowing that anything between them could only end in tragedy. She was not of his world and he could not even begin to understand hers. Still with everything reaching an endgame of sorts, most likely tonight, Vin suddenly felt urgency pressing against his chest, each time he tried to draw breathe. If everything went according to plan tonight as Chris explained it, then the danger to Ezra and the Slayer would end and the visitors from the future would return home.

As they rode back to Four Corners with the sun climbing across the sky towards noon, Vin sensed that Tara too thought deeply about their unfortunate situation. He knew she cared. He could tell by the corresponding expression of feeling whenever he stared at her that she did. However, there was no denying the impossibility of any life together. What could he offer her here? He was a man with a price on his head, knowing freedom because Judge Travis who had appointed him one of the seven lawmen to Four Corners, chose to ignore his situation. Unfortunately, the Judge could not secure his freedom and while his friends were not bothered by the charge of murder because they knew him to be innocent, the same could not be said for the rest of them. Vin lived with the uncomfortable notion that one day, his fragile existence would come to a crashing end.

Despite all his rationalization, he still did not want to imagine the morning he woke and knew that Tara was gone.

The ride home had consisted of lively chatter, with Buffy and Ezra engaging in conversation Judging by the chagrin on the gambler's face, it appeared that the young woman had inherited her ancestor's ability to annoy and justice had a sense of humor, since it was Ezra she chose to vex. Chris and Mary on the other hand were talking quietly and seemed as if they had reached a watershed moment in their relationship. It was just as well since Vin did not think he could take much more of their quarrelling and would have likely hog tied them together in order to inspire the mating process. Vin supposed with everything that had transpired these past few days, even someone as stubborn as Chris Larabee had to see that the future was closer than he thought and it was time to start living for it, instead of existing as it had been since his family's demise.

"Vin," Tara spoke softly in that endearing way that he had come to appreciate so much since meeting her. "We have to talk."

Vin sucked in his breath, knowing that this was probably the conversation he had been dreading since learning of the possible solution to their troubles with the vampires plaguing Four Corners. "I reckon we do."

Tara wished she could ignore the aching in her heart each time she looked at Vin and knew that very soon, she would never see him again. In her life, there had not been many people with whom she had a great affinity, even less than she cared for as she had come to do for him. Her natural shyness made it difficult to reach out to people and yet since meeting him, it was as if they had known each other forever. However, he knew as well as she that they had no future together and the pain reflected in his eyes as she met his gaze.

"I like you a lot," she said first, needing to get that off her chest so that there was no mistaking the purpose of this discussion.

"I like you too," he confessed and Tara could tell that it took a lot for the tracker to make even that small admission. Unlike the others whose personalities were easy to decipher, Vin was rarely vocal enough to give anyone a fleeting glimpse into his psyche.

"If the spell works tonight, we'll be going home." She met his blue eyes sadly.

"I know," he nodded. "I wish it wasn't that way."

"Me too," she replied. "But it's not possible."

"What if you stayed?" He found himself asking even though logically he knew that it was simply impossible.

"I can't," she blurted out on first impulse. However, less than a split second after the words had left her lips, she was suddenly struck with the notion of whether or not it was as impossible as she thought, especially when she had been so obtuse about the subject to not have considered it beyond her initial response. "At least I don't think I can."

"Are you sure?" Vin asked, his eyes full of hope that there might be a way for them to be together. 

"I don't know," Tara stared back at him, never realizing until this moment just how much she wanted to stay and be with him. "I mean if we fix things, I may not even exist."

Vin froze and met her eyes with growing tension. "What do you mean?" 

"If we change things, neither me or Giles will exist. The Tara and Giles that Buffy remembers will the ones who remain."

"Then why go back?" Vin demanded, unable to wrap his mind around the whole concept of erasing time lines but any threat to this Tara, the one he cared about inspired his full attention. 

"Because I can't stay here," she insisted weakly. She wanted to badly but she would not commit herself on something as uncertain and as fragile as her emotions. 

Vin swallowed, not wishing to say more than he had to but having no choice in the matter because they were at a watershed moment in their relationship and the words to make her stay where inside him, he needed the courage to speak them out loud. "You can," he looked at her unable to believe that he was saying this because it was insane but then everything about the last few days had been a lesson in insanity and who could blame him if he had learnt well. "You can stay with me."

Her eyes widened in surprise. Perhaps because she had never really expected him to say it even though it was implied in every look he gave her. "With you?"

"You can stay with me for awhile," he offered, finding more courage and more answers now that he had started down this course. "You don't have to decide anything right away. We could just be together for a while. I could take care of you."

Tara did not know what to say. Actually she did know what her heart wanted to say but her mind was still reeling from the offer and the impossibility of what he asked. "I have to think about this," she stammered. "I don't even know if it can be done."

"Don't make excuses," he said firmly and suddenly, she was reminded of why he held such presence over the others in Larabee's absence. "What do _you_ want to do?"

Her eyes glistened with her answer and her heart brimmed with hope. She did not have to speak it. 

He just knew.

**********

Upon arriving at Four Corners, the group broke up in order to get some rest. There would be much to do tonight, especially if they were going to play their endgame with Angelus and his family. Even though Buffy knew she should get some rest, she could not fall asleep. Her mind was too filled with Spike and the situation she now found herself in. Mary and Tara had taken the opportunity to catch up on some sleep but neither of them was the Slayer. Instead, Buffy liberated the long cloak that Mary had worn during her nocturne at Chris Larabee's shack, from the coat rack and wrapped it around herself so she would look a little respectable in comparison to the folk of Four Corners.

Stepping out into the sunshine made the problems of the night feel so far away. She looked up to the sky and felt her face bathed in the warm of the day and smiled with pleasure because here, she was truly safe. No vampires in this heat, she smiled as she walked into the sunlight, relishing the feel of it against her skin. The town of Four Corners was like another planet in comparison to Sunnydale. Even though she had known that she was in the Old West, the reality of it did not hit her until she walked the streets of the small frontier town. She was reminded of those westerns Xander would make her and watch and until now, she was certain that the 'real' West's interpretation in those films was laced with Hollywood make believe. Now that she saw it, she knew the picture perfect vision of the movies was merely a one-dimensional showing of a world devoid with smells, colors and atmosphere. Buzzing flies brought out by the heat and the manure left behind by horses, not to mention the overwhelming presence of dust drove home the fact that this was not some nostalgic time where the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black. Of course in this instance, the good guys definitely wore black if Chris Larabee was any indication. 

As she walked down the boardwalk, she noted that she caught the stares of some of the townsfolk even if her clothes were hidden by Mary's cloak. Buffy soon came to the realization that in a small town where everyone knew everybody, the presence of a stranger in their midst was bound to raise a few curious glances. In Sunnydale, there was no such difficult because for a small town, it had none of the earmarks of a normal Californian community, not when it existed above the Hellmouth. No one paid much attention to the faces that came and went in Sunnydale because more often than not, it was safer to be oblivious and curiosity usually led to some pretty lethal consequences. However, here in Four Corners, there was none of that indifference and Buffy wondered if it was such a bad thing to live in this world. 

"Aren't you supposed to be getting some rest?" Chris Larabee's voice suddenly emerged from behind her.

Buffy looked over her shoulder and saw the gunslinger had just left the saloon she had just walked past during her travels around Four Corners. "At least I'm not drinking." She pointed out with a teasing smile

Chris fell into stride with the young woman, wondering what she was doing out on her own. "Does Mary know you're out?"

"She and Tara are getting some zeds," she remarked nonchalantly as she continued her sightseeing tour of the town. "I decided to skip out and take the tour."

Chris assumed that _zeds_ meant sleep. "I kind of thought after the night we had you'd be doing the same."

"Not sleepy yet," Buffy retorted. "Benefit of slayerness is the fact that I don't tire easily. I'll keel soon enough, just wanted to look around first."

"Not much to see," Chris pointed out. "Kind of dull actually."

"Says the man who spent most of the night fighting vampires," Buffy retorted with a little smile. "I kind of thought you'd like the peace and quiet."

"I don't want any peace and quiet until this is all done," Chris said tautly. "I'll relax then."

"Gee, you're grouchy guy aren't you?"

Chris looked at her with a brow cocked; "you don't the half of it little girl."

"Little girl?" The slayer stared back at him. "Those are fighting words, Tex."

"Tex?" Chris drawled with mischief because something about Buffy allowed him to be himself, without having to be the one in charge. He supposed because on some instinct level they were equals in more ways than one. They were both dominant members of their packs and that kind of equality was not something they experience often. "Shot a guy who called me that once, never done it to a girl but that don't mean I wouldn't be willing to try." He offered her a menacing smile.

"I never kicked cowboy butt either so I guess we're even." She battered her eyes at him with innocence in direct contradiction to his dark look.

Chris chuckled and Buffy found the sound rather strange coming from him. In that way, he was a lot like Spike, other than the obvious fact that they both dressed from the same school of fashion. Spike did not laugh much. He teased and he sniggered but he did not really laugh. It was strange how she had suddenly noticed that. Would Spike have been like Chris if he had not been a vampire? Buffy shrugged at the thought because she never really wondered about Spike as a human being. It was mostly because she knew him as nothing else. However, she had pondered on numerous occasions of what it must have been like to know Angel as a human. She had never had the question cross her mind about Spike even though she was sharing a far more intimate relationship with him then she had ever experienced with Angel.

"That's a nice family you got there," she found herself saying to him. 

Chris stopped laughing and nodded in agreement and warm affection. "Yeah they're something. You got something like that at home, other than Spike?"

Buffy frowned at the mention of the vampire's name. "I do," she answered, suddenly wishing she could share all this with the rest of the Scoobies, particularly Willow and Xander. They had been such a big part of her life since coming to Sunnydale that it felt odd to be alone. "I miss them," she confessed. 

Chris could appreciate the sentiment; never imagining when he had first came to Four Corners that he would become so attached to the six men who were like brothers to him now. "They _do_ get under your skin when you're not looking."

"Like that pretty lady you keep making moon eyes at?" Buffy teased with a smile.

Chris stiffened. "That's none of your business," he said brusquely.

"Defensive much?" She retorted and continued on the subject, fearing nothing. "I mean it's so obvious you dig her."

"What?" He crinkled his brow at the term.

"You LIKE her," she repeated herself. 

"It is not," he replied uncomfortably, having no desire to discuss something so personal with a stranger. He did not care who she was. And he was _not_ obvious.

"Its alright to like her," Buffy rolled her eyes, never having seen a worse case of denial in her life. "Might even do you some good. You're _way_ too intense."

"I might say the same for you and Spike," Chris replied, capable of giving as good as he got.

"Spike is not human. He's a vampire." Buffy responded with a voice that could cut stone.

"Makes it easier for you to push him away thinking that doesn't it?" Chris replied, not about to relent. He liked Spike and he could see that the vampire was hopelessly lost. He could tell that Buffy's indifference to Spike's feelings hurt the vampire even if he was too proud to admit it.

"Since when was this about me?" She pouted.

"Since you stuck your nose in my business," Chris pointed out triumphantly.

"Consider it out then," Buffy sighed not wanting to talk Spike to _anyone_.

"Coward," he accused with a hint of a smile.

Buffy was about to respond when she caught sight of a man and woman further ahead on the boardwalk. The man was clutching the woman by the elbow and escorting her rather roughly towards the nearby saloon. Obviously, she was not inclined to go because she struggled out of his grip. However her freedom was fleeting. Within seconds he had caught up with her and in retaliation for her defiance, struck her clean across the jaw in full view of everyone on the street. Chris was already on his way to make his displeasure known when Buffy took off first ahead of him. 

"Buffy!" Chris called out but she was not listening. _Hell_, he thought to himself.

Buffy arrived as the woman was weeping into her hands, her face hidden in embarrassment and fear as the man shouted at her and resumed his grip on her elbow. "You're my girl Jenny! Don't you forget it!"

"Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Buffy tore his hand from her and stepped in between them. She felt her anger bubbling at the shattered slump of the woman's shoulders, like she was defeated in spirit not just body.

"Stay out my business little lady," the man warned, not at all taking the small blond girl seriously. "Or you'll get what I'm giving her."

"Ooh," Buffy cried out tauntingly, holding her hands to her chest as if she were mortally wounded by his barb, "the big bad man is going to hurt me." Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him and noted that the woman whom she was trying to rescue was now looking on at the situation in astonishment.

"Miss, you don't want to get involved in this…," she started to say, her lips quivering as she spoke.

"Shut up!" the man barked. "Shut your mouth! I can deal with this myself."

With that he turned to Buffy and raised his hand to strike. The blow never connected with Buffy's face for the Slayer's hand intercepted his fist and caught it without much effort. Her other hand gripped his arm and Buffy flipped him unceremoniously to the ground. He let out an indignant cry of shock and pain as he slammed hard on the boardwalk, with her only reaction being to step back as he unsettled the dust that covered the floor. A crowd of people had paused to look at the petite young woman who had shown quite clearly that looks and size were no way to judge a person. 

"You shouldn't let this guy treat you like this," Buffy said to the woman. 

"I don't!" The woman responded in frustration. "I've been working in the saloon and he seems to think that he's my beau!"

"Is that right?" Chris Larabee stepped in and hauled the man to his feet. The gunslinger had allowed the Slayer to handle things until this point, mostly because he enjoyed seeing how she took care of things when she was not fighting vampires that is. Since his curiosity in that regard was more or less satisfied, Chris turned his attention to the man who would have been handed his head if it had been Buck who had witnessed his brutality. Not that he was in much better luck because Chris did not think too kindly to men who raised their hands to a woman either. Although Buffy's intervention was more of a lesson and an injury to his pride then anything Chris could do to him.

"Bitch!" The man hissed at both Buffy and the object of his unwanted affections.

"Leave," Chris ordered with a voice colder than ice. 

"You can't make me!" He shouted defiantly.

Chris turned the infamous Larabee glare in his direction and shot him a look that would have melted the resolve of even the bravest men. "You think so?" Chris asked so menacingly that the skin on Buffy's hair stood on end. "Better be sure."

Buffy saw the man shudder in reaction to Chris' treat and she took could feel the darkness emanating off him. Spike said that people had darkness in them. In some it was so slight that it was seldom noticeable. Obviously it was not the case for Chris Larabee or herself for that matter. The bystanders watching the altercation between the four people held their breaths in anticipation of what would happen next. There was also something else in their eyes as they watched on, an unfailing expression of nothing less than unswerving faith in the dark clad gunslinger. Without doubt, they believed Chris was capable of protecting them from anything. If the look in his eyes was any indication of how he dealt with his enemies, Buffy could well believe it.

"I didn't want her anyway!" The man spat at her and pulled away from Chris, the naked desire to be well away from the gunslinger as he departed.

"You okay?" Chris turned to the woman.

"Yes," she nodded wiping her tears and staring at them both gratefully. "Thank you so much."

"Come see me if you have any more trouble with him," Chris instructed her. 

The woman offered them a little smile of thanks before she went on her way, understandably wanting to be as far away from the scene as possible, not to mention the curious eyes of the community at large. With the commotion more or less over, the bystanders evaporated into the street, returning to their own affairs, even though it was obvious that Buffy had inspired their curiosity by their lingering looks in her direction as they departed. Once they were alone, Chris turned to the young Slayer.

"Wow," Buffy replied, clearly impressed by how he had sent the enemy scurrying without raising a hand. "You sure are the Big Bad."

Chris chose to ignore her quip and gave her a hard stare before remarking, "what part of low profile did you not get?"

*************

There was a finality about tonight that seemed to seep into all their bones when the night descended upon the town. Within her house, Mary Travis awaited with abated breath for the night's events to unfold while she kept Buck Wilmington and Josiah Sanchez under her care. While the former had complained bitterly about not being allowed to participate in the final showdown with the vampires led by Angelus, he was forced to begrudgingly admit that his injury made him a liability if her were allowed to join them. Josiah had made no such arguments because he was sensible enough to know that he was in no conditions to fight. Mary had bid Chris goodbye, mindful that the lawmen would not doubt be keeping her home under close surveillance as they waited for Angelus to appear. He had said little as they faced each other but she saw the warmth and concern in his eyes and words were not needed after that.

Chris and Vin sat on top of the granary for that was the highest structure in Four Corners and it gave them a sweeping view of the town's boundaries. No one would be able to sneak into town without them knowing about it. Chris knew that Angelus would be back tonight. The vampire was probably rather mystified as to why none of the seven or the slayer had come after them upon learning the whereabouts of their lair. Angelus struck him as one who would make a pre-emptive strike. He was too smart and too arrogant to wait around for a bunch of humans to come finish them off. No, they would be here tonight. Of this Chris had no doubt.

Vin was silently watching the terrain, using the same stealth he employed when he was tracking buffalo. The sharpshooter kept his keen eye on any sign of movement and remained still at the edge of the roof, saying little. Chris could tell even without Vin saying it that the outcome of tonight weighed heavily on his best friend's mind. Inwardly, Chris ached for his friend because he knew that Vin had lost his heart to the sweet young woman from the future. 

"You okay?" Chris found himself asking.

"I'm fine," Vin said shortly in a tone that indicated that he was far from it but was too strong to let it show.

"I'm sorry about how its gonna go Vin," Chris answered. "I wish it were different."

Vin's gaze shifted slightly from his surveillance and touched the gunslinger's, "I know but it ain't so that's all there is to it."

Chris wanted to speak but the opportunity to do so was lost when Vin's eyes shifted quickly to the distance once more. "Someone's coming." He gestured dead ahead.

Chris came up along side him and stared out into the direction of Vin's stare. A group of horses were thundering towards town, kicking up a cloud of dust with the dark hardtop carriage they were pulling Vin and Chris exchanged a brief glance but they both came to the same conclusion.

Angelus was here.

************

"Chris just gave the signal!" Nathan cried out running back into Josiah's church. 

"Are you sure?" Tara stammered as she sat in her circle, candles surrounding her with other talismans she had brought from the future laid out in accordance with the ritual she needed to perform. At Nathan's announcement, Giles and JD checked their weapons, being stakes and holy water since it was conceivable that the four vampires would have brought minions with them.

"Pretty sure ma'am," Nathan responded as the healer checked for the stakes and knives he carried across his back in a neat leather holster.

"We do as Chris says," Giles looked at them all. "We stay here and wait for him to come to us."

"Do you think it will work?" JD asked a little anxiously.

"It will," Giles replied with more confidence then he actually felt. "Buffy and Spike will see to it that it does."

"I hope you're right," Ezra remarked, silent until now because he hated the fact that he was trapped in these hallowed walls unable to fight because he was deemed too important to do so. At the moment, he felt far from that and more like a coward. It was not a feeling he detested intensely. He had his fill of running and hiding since coming to Four Corners. "It would not please me to see her hurt."

"She won't be," Giles gave the man a look of empathy because he understood Ezra's anxieties all too well. Even though he did not share the blood connection that the gambler did and he had no memory of being Buffy's watcher, he was her Watcher in every sense of the word. He had no doubt that she had made his other self infinitely proud because he felt proud at how strong she had become and felt gratified to know that he had some part in all that.

"This had better work," Ezra retorted, not about to be consoled. "I do not plan on running from these creatures for the rest of my existence and I will not allow those who come after me to suffer the same nightmare."

"It will work," Tara spoke up silencing all the men in the room. "I will make it work."

The young woman seemed extremely confident in that statement alone but had no further opportunity to speak because the sound of glass shattered the quiet in the room. Tara let out a short scream as a vampire that none of them had seen, landed on the floor of the room. His tumultuous arrival was followed by the bolted door the church heaving with the power of forced entry. The wooden bolt across the entrance held the door in place but would not do so for long. Already it was jumping out of its catch, propelling both Nathan and Giles to run forward to reinforce the barricade. 

The vampire landed right in front of Ezra and hissed at him, recognizing the gambler for who he was. As he stepped towards Ezra, the southerner held his ground not moving.

"EZRA!" Tara shouted. "MOVE!"

Ezra did not. Instead he waited until the vampire was close enough. The creature approached him fearlessly, seeing little threat in the human. In life he might have been a Mexican but not much remained of that when it snarled at Ezra, bearing fangs ready to tear out the southerner's throat. Instinct made Ezra want to run but he knew that he had hold his ground, at least until the vampire had closed the distance between them. He noted that JD was running towards him but Ezra did not pay the younger man too much mind, instead he produced the bottle of holy water in his burgundy coat and sprayed its contacts across the creatures face. The splash of fluid against the vampire's skin caused it to howl in fury as the holy water sizzled into his skin. Taking advantage of his disorientation, this time it was Ezra closing in and instead of his usual Remington, the weapon of choice was a sharpened wooden stake. Plunging it into the vampire's chest, the creature's eyes widened in fury and pain before his entire body exploded into a cloud of dust.

Ezra stepped back, breathing hard as he allowed his fear to abate. It was the first time he had killed one of these things and he was still rather overwhelmed by it all. 

"Jesus Ezra!" JD scolded. "How long were you gonna wait to do something! That thing could have killed you!"

"I had it all under control," Ezra said smoothly even though he was a series of quivering nerves under his buttoned up shirt.

"Any more under control and it would have been fatal," JD retorted. However, there was no further opportunity for reproach because another was soon clambering through the window, followed by others. Tara screamed in fright at their appearance. 

"We need to barricade the window!" Ezra cried out, hurrying to one of the pews in Josiah's church. "JD help me!"

JD wasted no time in aiding Ezra with the length of wooden seating, using it to force the vampire that was attempting to climb into the church out the window again. However, as a barricade it was insufficient and while they had vanquished the immediate threat, it did not take long for the vampires to recoup to make another attempt at penetrating their defenses. The cloves of garlic hanging on the window did little to deter them other than to force the creatures into giving the vegetable a wide berth. Unfortunately, their determination to reach Ezra was overriding their natural fear and they continued to slam against the doors and the makeshift barrier, Ezra and JD had erected against the window.

"That's not going to keep them out for too long," Nathan remarked as they were surrounded by the sounds of vampires seeking entry into their haven.

"It will have to do," Giles said grimly, his hand gripped tightly around his stake. "We have to hold them off until Buffy can bring Angelus here."

Giles hoped that it was easier said then done.

***************

Buffy and Spike waited in the shadows after Chris had given the signal that Angelus was in town. As far as they had deduced, the vampire would proceed to one of two places when he entered Four Corners. He would undoubtedly resume his search for Ezra Standish by either going to Mary Travis' home or the church. Angelus was no fool, he would guess that they would not hide Ezra in a place without protection. The jailhouse and the saloons where the seven normally frequented were not places that could be barred to them for the lack of invitation. However Mary's home was another thing entirely and in the absence of someone else's home and without wishing to involve anyone else, the church seemed a natural choice. Angelus would spread out his forces to cover out the largest possible area but he himself would converge upon Mary's home because of his infatuation with her.

Fortunately, Angelus had never had the chance to play his obsessive games with the widow much to Buffy's relief but the fact that he had known her name had given the slayer some clue as to why he had taken the time to find out. Buffy and Spike had a clear view of Mary's home. Even if Angelus could not secure an invitation into the home did not mean he could not draw its inhabitants out. Josiah and Buck were in no condition to fight if Angelus was determined to have Mary. 

"They're coming," Spike announced first, his jaw tensing as he stepped forward to the absolute edge of the shadows.

"Are you sure?" Buffy asked quietly.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I can feel them."

Buffy knew that there was some unseen connection between Master and Childe, that Spike could sense his sire on some psychic level. It was an aspect of vampires she did not know much about other than its existence. Angel had tried to explain it to her once but much of what he said had been too much for a sixteen year old's understanding. She allowed her gaze to sweep across the street, trying to catch sight of the enemy and not relishing the idea of facing Angelus again. The last time they had looked upon each other, Buffy had been on the verge of killing him and what followed was something she still woke up screaming from at night.

Spike could sense her discomfiture and tried not to let jealousy get the better of him, particularly after her warm display earlier. It had seemed for a moment that she had seen him as more than just a vampire that she sometimes used as a lover but someone whom she could care about. Besides, this could not be easy for her. No easier than it was for him to see how good he and Dru had once been together. Buffy was hiding it well but he could sense her moods and he knew that facing Angelus troubled her. 

"You all right pet?" He asked gently.

"I'm fine," she sighed. "Just _so_ not looking forward to this."

"Don't blame you," Spike replied with sincere empathy. "I'm not to keen about seeing Dru either."

"I thought you were over her," Buffy said a little too quickly, drawing a little smile from Spike because there was just a hint of jealousy in her voice.

"Jealous?" He teased, unable to help himself.

"Oh please," Buffy retorted. "Over yourself much?"

"Right," Spike rolled his eyes. "I forget how much you hate me."

"Well don't you forget it," she responded but she was clearly smiling as she said it.

It was almost a tender moment.

"Uh oh," Spike declared, "look who's here."

Buffy looked up and saw Angelus appear. He was with at least three minions approaching Mary's house. Buffy had thought he would be with more and supposed that it was logical that he might have split up their forces in order to make a more expansive search for Ezra. Buffy found herself staring at Angelus, unable to equate him with Angel whom she loved. He seemed strange to her with long hair and in period clothing but it was still Angel except this version had no soul.

"We better do this while there isn't many of them," Spike suggested.

Buffy had to agree but something did not feel right. "Yeah," she said somewhat hesitantly.

"Luv?" Spike looked at her noticing the pause although he misinterpreted the reason. "You're not still thinking he's Peaches are you?"

"No!" She hissed in exasperation, wishing he would get over that. She had once been prepared to sent Angelus to hell and had done it despite the fact that he had become Angel during the battle. If there was one thing she knew how to do it was distinguishing between the two of them. "Let's just do this." She retorted and brushed past him.

They emerged under the light of the moon and immediately caught Angelus' attention. The Master Vampire started to smile at seeing them appear and did not at all seem surprised at seeing the duo. Supreme confidence reigned in Angelus' manner as he cast his gaze in their direction and immediately put Spike on guard. Buffy was already there. Now he could understand why she felt so unsettled. Angelus was facing a slayer and he did not look the slightest bit concerned. In fact the expression on his face was one that Spike was well acquainted with - expectation. He knew they were coming and if he knew it then Spike was almost certain that he had planned for it.

"You slayers and your pet 'vampires' are so predictable," Angelus grinned as he sneered at Spike, perfectly aware now of the relationship between the two. "Except I have to admit Buffy," he stared at Buffy with a perfectly vicious smile, "can I call you Buffy?"

"I didn't come here for small talk," Buffy retorted, knowing by his tone that he was about to become very cruel and she really had no patience for it. She wanted this over and done with. Buffy had no idea how hard it would be to face Angel until this moment. Despite herself she could not help but be revisited the last time she saw Angelus. 

"Oh I don't think you have a choice in that," Angelus smiled and looked past her shoulder. Buffy and Spike looked around them and suddenly saw at least a dozen vampires emerging from the long shadows around them. They stepped out of the night like wraiths surrounding both Buffy and Spike in large numbers. Among the faces between them, were also Drusilla, Darla and William. William's face appeared scarred, no doubt a left over from Josiah's escape attempt. 

"Hello there Slayer," William said with a little smile. "Shall we dance?"

Spike watched in unfolding horror as his younger version approached the Slayer slowly, even though he was one of a dozen vampires closing in on them, Spike could not think of anything else. He had killed two slayers in his time because of his fierce determination to be the best and right now he was not hindered by his love for her. Given the chance, William would not hesitate to kill Buffy. However, his ability to help her was seriously endangered by the multiple threats they were now surrounded with.

"You're not my Spike," Drusilla stared at him and then narrowed her eyes in hatred as her serene features morphed into its vampire visage and turned to Buffy. "You're her Spike."

William lunged at Buffy and Spike found himself running to her aid but he never got there. Swept off his feet, he felt himself tackled to the ground by two minions. Their weight landed heavily on him, trapping Spike against the ground. He could only look up helplessly as he saw Buffy fending off William's attack with Drusilla closing in. Angelus started towards the Travis home and Spike hoped that Mrs. Travis was sensible enough to say indoors because that was her only defense against the vampire. However, Spike had larger troubles of his own. 

Kicking his foot out, he connected with one minion's stomach and gave himself enough time when the vampire stumble away from him a little to throw a punch that sent the other sprawling. He scrambled to his feet in a desperate bid to reach Buffy but he was pulled savagely back again. The minion was clawing at his leg refusing to let go. Spike kicked out again, this time landing his foot on the vampire's face. The fledgling let out an angry cry which distracted Spike enough to keep from seeing the stake that coming towards him from above. Twisting hard, which was no easy feat when one of the fledglings had his hand wrapped around Spike's ankle, he managed to escape the point of the stake when it buried itself in the dirt next to him. Spike pulled out his own weapon and slammed it into the shoulder of the fledgling that had almost killed him. 

The penetration would not kill the vampire but it was enough to hurt and the fledgling threw up his head up, screaming in pain as Spike yanked his foot free and escaped them both. He hurried forward; his eyes still fixed on Buffy as she fought both William and Dru. His progress towards her was halted when he felt a slash of nails across his abdomen. Spike hissed in pain and saw Darla staring at him with challenge. Blood run down his torso making her eyes glistened with the hunger of blood and the sight of it running freely down his stomach. 

"You're such a romantic Spike," Darla shook her head derisively. "But I thought even _you_ had standards."

"Well I take after my grandsire," Spike retorted. "I have his taste for women."

"I'm going to enjoy watching you die," she hissed at him in venomous rage. 

With that, she looked at the fledglings around him and nodded. They converged upon him like a pack of hungry dogs. He was assaulted not by two but at least five. The first one who came at him found only death as Spike grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed his forehead into the vampire's skull. Wasting no time, Spike used his disorientation to send the fledgling straight into his knee followed by a road house punch that sent him sprawling backwards, arms outstretched. Spike flung his stake through the air, having grown exceedingly accurate with it after patrolling with the slayer for so long. It penetrated the heart and the fledgling could only look on in surprise as he exploded into nothingness

Spike threw himself forward, beyond the reach of the remaining four, rolling across the ground before he reached his stake where it had fallen after destroying the vampire whose heart it pierced. He snatched the piece of wood and rotated on his knee, attempting to deal with the three others that he had just left behind and the others that were joining the fray. He stood up, trying not to notice the numbers against him, wishing only to deal with them so that he could help Buffy. Spike threw a fist at the first one who reached him, unaware that Darla was closing in from behind him. The vampire reeled a little and Spike continued his onslaught of punches, trying to drive them away from him to give him some breathing room for a more decisive attack. He swung his fist in a succession of punches, alternating between his attacks between his hands and his feet. Spike drove his stake into the heart of another fledgling, causing him to burst into nothingness before his companions. 

Suddenly Darla came up from behind him and pressed her fingers into the wounds she had created upon his body. Spike let out a cry and became distracted by the pain, allowing the others to converge upon him. Darla wrapped her arm around his throat as one of the minions took the stake from his hand and soon he was being held firm. Spike struggled to break free but they were all around him and six to one odds was more than he could handle, especially when he was wounded and trying to save Buffy. The stake that had been his weapon was now in another's hands and Spike became very conscious of the fact that he had no power to stop anything from happening to him at this point.

"Slayer!" Darla called out over his ear.

Buffy had been fighting William and Drusilla at this point. If this had been a hundred years later, there would have been no way for her to fight them both. However, Buffy had come to the realization that this was not the Spike who had killed two slayers before coming to Sunnydale. This was a Spike who was very new to being a vampire, who had more balls and swagger than he had actual fighting skill, something that 'her' Spike (she flinched inwardly at the word 'her') had in abundance. She could see some of the savage strength that would make him so formidable later on but she was too seasoned and he was still too new at this to be a serious threat. Drusilla who was more experienced had not acquired the skill that Buffy had and relied mostly on her ability to mesmerize her prey to kill.

However, Darla was another thing entirely. Darla was the oldest one of them. Her Sire had been the Master and when Buffy turned to her at the sound of Darla's voice, she felt her heart sink with horror when she saw Spike had been incapacitated. Buffy threw a succession of kicks at William, sending him crashing into Drusilla as she turned to help Spike. However, Darla had set up her pieces well and she was more than prepared for the attempt.

  
"Surrender or your pet dies," Darla said with a smile.

"Slayer don't you do it!" Spike shouted instantly. He was rewarded by one of the fledging using his own stake and shoving the piece of wood into his side, away from his heart but enough to make him cry out in pain.

"Spike!" Buffy found herself crying out involuntarily at the sound of his agony. She saw the blood glistening on his stomach where Darla had wounded him and fresh wound that had just been inflicted upon him.

"Let him go," Buffy demanded with venom in her voice.

Darla's demonic visage curled up into a smile. "Or you'll kill me?"

"Not right away," Buffy warned and meant it. "Let him go."

"I will," Darla replied with a sneer and then looked to a minion. "Do it!"

Buffy watched in horror as the minion brought down the stake and saw Spike staring at her in defeat, not because he was going to die but because he was going to leave her alone. He had promised that he would stay by her side and now he was going to leave her too, just like the others. 

"SPIKE NO!" She screamed in anguish because in that one instant, she realized that while she may not know if she loved him, Buffy did know for certain she did not wish lose him.

The stake never had a chance to strike because an arrow tore through the air and landed in the middle of the fledgling's back. He let out a scream just before he vanished. Another soon followed the arrow, this one striking the vampire holding Spike's arm. Although the arrow penetrated his forehead, it was more than enough for the vampire to release his hold of Spike. As he staggered away, trying to deal with the protrusion in his face, another arrow soared through the air and struck home, ending the threat of him once and for all.

Buffy turned to the direction of the archer and let out a sigh of relief as she saw Vin Tanner appear out of the darkness with Chris Larabee. Suddenly the odds did not seem so impossible any more and Buffy offered him a look of thanks as the tracker reached for another arrow. Chris on the other hand produced a stake and was soon met by a vampire. This time the gunslinger seemed unfazed by the attack and thrust the point of the weapon into creature's heart, sending the demon back to hell.

"Two against eight isn't very fair is it?" Chris drawled, hiding the fact that he was extremely anxious to deal with this particular situation because he noted that Angelus was gone and if he was gone, that could only mean he was going after Ezra or Mary.

"Depends on how you look at it," Darla smiled viciously. 

Spike did not give her a chance to make further comment because he slammed his skull backwards, connecting with Darla's face and making a terrific crunch of sound as bone met bone. She cried out shortly but the blow was hard enough to knock her out cold. She slid to the ground without much protest as Buffy ran into action. She threw a flying kick at William, throwing him hard against the wall and began pummeling him with fierce punches in an effort to subdue him once and for all. Meanwhile Vin and Spike resume mopping up the fledglings. Drusilla made a beeline towards Chris, probably because she remembered how she had almost taken him during their last encounter.

Chris saw Drusilla approach and as she looked into his eyes, he tried to turn away but found the power of them too much for him. He remembered how lethal they were as he saw the flecks of color suddenly taking on a life of its own. Her lips curled into a smile, knowing she had him. Chris heard Vin shouting at him, but his voice sounded as if he was very far away. Drusilla was smiling at him as she started speaking in that ethereal voice once more. It wound its way through his skin and polluted his brain with its intoxication.

"Be in my eyes," she smiled. "Be in me."

Something inside him snapped when he heard her say those words. The memory of JD coming to save his life seared through his mind and Chris blinked but not before mustering every ounce of self-control he had in his body to do so. He threw his head forward into Drusilla's crushing her nose and drawing her a cry of pain as she staggered backwards in pain. Chris threw another fist in her face now that he had regained control of his faculties and wondered how he could have allowed himself to get so close to her again. It did not matter because he was not going to be caught under her spell again. Chris was not usually one to hit women but this one hardly qualified as the garden-variety type and so his conscience allowed him another blow.

"Dru!" William shouted, seeing his lover attacked by the black garbed gunslinger. 

Buffy saw his concern was enough to stop him fighting and quickly turned to Chris. "Chris, hold her!"

Chris caught on immediately to what Buffy intended and caught Drusilla as she reeled from his punches around the neck. He twisted her around hard, so that her back would face him before trapping her neck in a tight arm lock. 

"Vin!" Chris called out to the tracker. Between Vin and Spike, the minions they were fighting were dead. Darla was still lying on the floor out cold and the fight had come down to William and Buffy who now more or less found himself alone. Suddenly, William found himself in the same position that Buffy had a short time ago before the timely arrival of the gunslinger and the tracker. 

"Give it up or the tracker puts an arrow through your honey." Buffy declared as Vin trained his arrow on Drusilla's heart.

"You can't let them do it!" William implored to Spike, hoping that because of who he was, he might stop this.

"Trust me mate," Spike said coolly. "When she skips out on you with a chaos demon, you won't mind so bloody much."

"Bastard!" William swore furiously, staring at Drusilla in anguish.

"Do it Vin!" Chris ordered in order to prompt William's decision.

"NO!" William shouted in horror as Vin pulled back the bow. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?"  
  
Buffy let out a sigh of relief and noted the same on Spike's face. For a moment, he was not entirely sure that William would not call their bluff since they could not kill Drusilla but then gambling on something as uncertain as the future was always as risk. 

"Where is Angelus!" Buffy demanded first.

William swore, not wishing to tell the truth but having no choice when faced with the loss of Drusilla. "At the church," he said bitterly. "He knew you wouldn't be stupid enough to hide Standish with the woman. He thought that you might use her for bait, that's why he set up this little caper for you."

"Alright," Chris nodded slowly, itching to get going after the head vampire before he harmed any one of his friends sequestered in the church. "I want all three of you out of my town, now. If you don't get out of here right this minute, I won't give a damn about what happens in the future. I _will_ stake all of you three and if I have to I'll have the entire Territory coming after you with pitchforks and torches!"

"This isn't over slayer," William glared at Buffy, acknowledging his defeat for the moment. "I will kill you one day."

"I'm gonna bet you don't," Spike retorted under his breath.

William stared at him in disgust, "if you're what I become then I ought to bloody well kill myself now." 

Spike opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. 

William was not wrong about that much at least. However, Spike not had a good idea where his fetish for long black coats had come from as he watched William staring at Chris Larabee's black duster. Well, Spike shrugged. Who could blame him?

They were both going to look bloody good in it.

****************

Once William, Drusilla and Darla were gone, Buffy turned to Chris and Vin. "You guys get going to the church!" 

Chris looked at her, "ain't you coming?"

"We'll be there in a sec," Buffy retorted quickly and gave the gunslinger an unspoken request for a moment alone. 

Chris nodded slightly in understanding before throwing a sidelong glance at Vin, "let's go."

Vin who was eager to get going because Tara was at the church as well did not offer any protest and the two men hurried away from the empty square, leaving Buffy and Spike behind. Spike's brow knotted in confusion as he wondered the reason for the delay. He had little more than a second to ponder the situation when his eyes widened in shock at Buffy throwing her arms around him and pulling him towards her in an urgent embrace. He was so stunned by her actions that he could only stared in wide eyed astonishment as she began planting kisses all over his face and then on his lips. 

"Uh Slayer…." Spike muttered through his confusion and her kisses, "did I miss something?"

"You stupid vampire!" She said when she paused long enough to speak from her passionate plunder of his lips. "You almost got yourself killed!"

"Yeah?" She was still losing him. "So?"

"So?" She pulled away in exasperation. "You may not be the man of my dreams! Hell I don't even like you smoking in my house, my friends can't stand you and you…you're lame! But I've gotten used to your face so be careful! I don't want you to get hurt!" She ended this impassioned statement with a hard right cross.

__

That, Spike understood as he tumbled to the dirt.

"You were worried about me pet?" He started to smile that triumphant smirk that Buffy could never stand once he managed to get to his feet.

"Don't make a big thing about it," she frowned walking away from him, with full expectation that he would be behind her. "I still hate you."

Perhaps so, but Spike was still grinning from ear to ear when he followed her.

**************

They had been doing quite well holding off the vampires that were attempting to force their way into the church. JD and Ezra had remained at the broken window, holding the pews in place to keep more of the undead from entering Josiah's labor of love. Although none of the seven present in the room spoke of it, they were trying their best to keep Josiah's church from becoming too damaged. Ever since his arrival in Four Corners, Josiah had devoted a great deal of time to restoring this dilapidated church into its present state as a house of worship. It pained them all to see that had work beyond destroyed by vampires in a single night. The wooden bolt across the door was still holding but Giles and Nathan had taken to securing it with a length of pew because they could cracks appearing in the wood.

Tara stood in the center of her circle, trying not to feel fear as she chanted and readied herself for the spell when Buffy brought Angelus to her. She had never attempted anything as ambitious as this but then the last few days had been a testament to what she could do when she set her mind on it. Suddenly, there was an incredible explosion at the head of the church. The large crucifix clattered on the floor, its smooth surface becoming jagged and the form of Christ hanging from it was equally ravaged. Josiah's pulpit was crushed under the weight of brick and as the fissure appeared in the wall, stepping through the dust was Angelus. 

"Dynamite," he announced dusting his hands exaggeratedly when he met their astonished gazes for the first time. "It makes this so much simpler, yes?"

"Get out here!" Giles stormed forward, his crucifix held in front of him as he went to confront the vampire that was here of his own volition and not led here by Buffy as planned. Something had gone wrong and until he knew what it was, he was not letting Angelus anywhere near Ezra Standish. Unfortunately it appeared that Angelus was not alone as he was accompanied by the vampires that had been trying to gain entry into the church.

"Oh _that_ will work English," Angelus laughed as he gestured his minions deeper into the building. He walked towards Giles fearlessly. "A crucifix will make a preacher's son like me run for sure." Without flinching, Angelus placed his hand on the crucifix and even though his skin sizzled and his face tensed in pain, he still managed to snatch away the religious artifact and fling it away. Giles stared at him in shock for a moment before Angelus swung out wide, connecting with his jaw in a powerful blow that knocked the Watcher to the floor.

"Who's the pretty one?" Angelus turned to Tara and gave her a long, interested look. Knowing how Angelus felt about blond women, his attention to her made Tara shudder.

"You leave her alone!" Ezra hurried past the vampires spreading out into the room. He was not about to let the young woman suffer because of him. "It me you want!" 

"Ezra no!" Nathan shouted.

Angelus stared at him sharply. "So you're the one who produces a Slayer?" 

Ezra stopped short in his tracks, unable to understand how he learnt this truth. "A Slayer?" He feigned ignorance. "I thought it was because of my charm."

"Oh you're funny," Angelus replied with a smile and closed the distance between them. Ezra produced a stake and attempted to attack but the vampire caught his wrist in his hand and bent back sharply. A crack of bone was followed by Ezra's scream as his useless finger relinquished his hold of the weapon. Angelus secured his hold around Ezra's neck as the other vampires converged upon Giles, JD and Nathan who readied themselves to fight.

Suddenly an arrow struck Angelus on the flesh part of his thigh as Vin and Chris burst into the room. The injury to their master caused the other vampires to attack and suddenly the room exploded into pandemonium. Chris ran forward, trying to aid Ezra who was still in the Master Vampire's iron grip. Chris could see Angelus squeezing hard, until Ezra was struggling to pry his fingers lose with his one good hand. Chris reached Angelus and grabbed the arrow imbedded in his leg and twisted sharply. Angelus screamed in pain and retaliated with a sharp back punch that landed squarely in Chris' face as he released Ezra. The gambler fell to the ground panting as Angelus turned to Chris Larabee.

"I think," Angelus stared at Chris as he hobbled forward, snatching the arrow out of his thigh and yanking it free of his leg in one quick movement. His face morphed into full demonic mask at the pain before he hissed, "I'm going to give you to Darla for a little gift. Valentine's day is almost here isn't it?"

"What? No puppies nailed on doors this year?" A decidedly feminine voice entered the mix.

Buffy punctuated that statement with a blow to the face. Angelus' surprise showed when he was caught off guard but it did not last. He was a hundred and thirty years old even now and a seasoned warrior unlike William and Drusilla. After his soul was restored to him he would be a champion for good but for the moment all that skill was shrouded in darkness. When she threw her fist again, he caught it and delivered a sharp jab to her jaw. Buffy reeled but she had taken worse in her time and she slammed her foot down on the side of his knee, bringing him down to the floor. As he landed, she brought up her knee, connecting with his face as his head snapped back from the impact. She went to kick again but he caught his foot and twisted it hard, spinning her in mid air and bringing her down. Buffy landed hard as Angelus rushed towards her but she flipped onto her feet and caught the punch he was about to throw. She caught his fist and he reacted by grabbing her hair and pulling her close to him, opening his mouth to sink his teeth into her neck. His fangs grazed her flesh and Buffy felt pain when she heard Spike shouting.

"GET OFF HER!" The vampire roared in fury

Buffy reached for her neck and was staggered that Angelus had managed to get that far. She wiped her neck in time to see Spike throw a forward kick that sent Angelus half way across the room. The fury in Spike's eyes was beyond description as he threw punch after punch at Angelus, wearing down his Sire as he drove the older vampire toward the circle where Tara waited. Chris Larabee was helping the others fight the remaining minions as Buffy scrambled towards Spike and Angelus. Angelus was giving as good as he got but it was Spike who had the edge even though he was hurt. It seems that Angelus almost feeding off her had inspired the English vampire's utmost rage and he was venting it with each kick and punch he delivered. 

Buffy ran forwards as Angelus reached the circle, skidding to her hands and knees at the edge of it. Angelus did not see her because he was still concentrating on dealing with his enraged chide, however Spike caught on quickly to what Buffy intended and swung one final powerful blow that send Angelus staggering backwards over Buffy's prone form. He fell into the circle hard. His head slamming against the wooden floorboards with a loud thwack. He did not move and the room felt silent as if some crucial moment had arrived and everyone knew it, even Angelus' minions. 

Tara wasted no time and put her spell into effect.

__

I call to thee Goddesses of Old

To Tisiphone, Alecto and Magaera,

Grant she who has commanded the stars 

Grant she who is a daughter of Eve, 

Possessor of the Sight and the old ways

To show this being of undead the future of his existence, 

To show him the truth his mind will not accept

Part the veil between time and space

To the world that was and the one that might be, 

I call to thee, Goddess of the Three, 

Listen to your daughter's call, 

In the mist lies the future, 

Show him this fallen warrior his redemption, 

Show him his salvation and folly,

Show him his soul.

I command thee, SHOW HIM HIS SOUL!

Angelus heard the words but for a few seconds after he had fallen, they had made little sense. He struggled for equilibrium but the clarity of mind that always came so easily to him, became vague and indistinct. He heard the words and its climatic ending and suddenly he was enveloped in a burst of color that all but blinded him. For a moment, Angelus was struck by panic thinking she might have cast him into the daylight. However, his skin was not burning and he was being swallowed by a vortex of images, painful and searing. He bit down not wanting to scream but as the pain intensified, there was little choice and it escaped him without his knowledge.

It all crowded upon him.

__

His soul forced back into his body. Darla's tears as she saw him became an abomination. His demon encased somewhere in the darkness, staring at a pinprick of light and being bombarded with so much regret. The pain of all those deaths swallowed him whole, every tortured cry, and every evil he had ever inflicted upon others screamed in his ears like a deafening cacophony. He should not have cared but somehow he was in a place where it mattered. The demon hissed with fury, each emotion of regret burning him like fire, he clawed for freedom but there was none except this trapping darkness while around him the world changed in a kaleidoscope of images, most of which he understood, hurtling past him. 

He found himself hungry, so desperately hungry that even the blood of a mouse was enough to fill and satiate him and yet that was the only pleasure he was allowed because there was the pain of regret and remorse. Redemption sang promises of healing but he knew better, there was no end to it. There could not be. He knew this was going to happen. Perhaps it already had and he was merely being given some insight. He did not see how this had happened to him but he knew that it had and the demon that he was. was trapped like an animal, unable to feel anything but this terrible remorse that he should not have been able to feel.

But then something happened. Something changed.

Buffy. 

Each time the word impacted upon his psyche, he felt it decrease. He became filled with her, her smile, her laugh, the way her gold hair shimmered in the moonlight. The utter pleasure in her eyes at seeing him. Young love at its best, something that neither Angelus or even Liam, the human he had once been had never known. Being in her presence was like a divine audience, she made the pain recede until it was almost gone and his soul, this heavy weight that brought with it so much pain started to soar. Lips touching his and his dead heart would skip a beat. When she touched him, he thought he might die from happiness at the sensation and when she said she loved him, he knew it was forever. Nothing would ever change that for her, no matter who came after him.

The emotions confused Angelus. He hated feeling this deep abiding love for some human but the pain went away because he did and then when he thought this journey of his could not become any more confusing, he was free. The hateful soul inside of him was gone. The feelings of pain and anguish disappeared in a moment of powerful and overwhelming bliss. He understood at that instant why she could not be killed because this condition of his was not meant to be a gift, it was a punishment and were he not to feel anguish or suffering, then he would lose that precious soul. The irony of it made Angelus laugh. He laughed so hard that it almost brought tears to his eyes. 

************

"Why is he laughing?" Chris asked as they watched what was happening to Angelus. The other minions had been dusted and now all that was left was the Master Vampire. 

"I don't know," Buffy replied just as confusion as they saw Angelus curled into a fetal position and shuddering with laughter. Unfortunately, they could not ask Tara because she was in a trance. They all watched in growing confusion as Angelus continued to laugh so hard that for a moment, they thought he might suffocate if not for the fact he did not need air to breath.

Suddenly, Tara opened her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. There were beads of sweat running down her forehead and she appeared exhausted but not so much that she could not scramble away from Angelus because she was too weary to protect herself should he make any attempt to attack. Vin immediately hurried to her and pulled her away from the circle, allowing her the use of his shoulder to stand up.

"What did you do?" Buffy asked.

"I made him see," Tara whispered with weariness.

"See what? The three stooges?" Spike inquired.

"The three stooges?" Buffy stared at him.

"What, they're funny." He defended himself.

She shook her head and faced Tara again, "I don't understand."

"Oh leave the girl alone," Angelus replied and stood up. His sudden animation immediately placed the others on guard with stakes being produced and any other weapon that might make him a past tense held in full view. 

"My, you're chipper." Buffy retorted glaring at him.

Angelus looked at her as if for the first time, "its not going to happen you know."

"What?" Chris asked, starting to get very annoyed.

"I'm not going to let it happen." Angelus took a step forward and noted how everyone was prepared to kill him if he made a threatening move. "I won't let my soul come back."

"You don't have a choice in the matter," Buffy responded realizing that Chris' gamble had worked as had Tara's spell. Angelus knew what she was to him and what they were to each other.

"It won't happen," he stated firmly. "But I'm careful vampire. I'm not about to kill the grandsire of the only person that could save me if it does happen." He glanced at Ezra whose hand was being tended to by Nathan.

"Get out of my town," Chris growled. 

"I will soon enough," Angelus responded with a smile, still staring at Buffy. "Tell me something, did you really believe that he loved you?" His eyes narrowed in calculation.

"Of course he did," Spike found himself saying, not wishing to let Buffy be hurt by Angelus' words, no matter how much of a sore point Angel was with him.

"Spike," Angelus grinned. "I guess you'll always be satisfied by the crumbs at my table."

"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Chris shouted, jabbing the stake in the vampire's chest as he saw Spike reeling from the vicious taunt. Despite Spike's confident manner, even Chris could see how close to the bone that remark had cut.

"You're good in a fight," Angelus laughed, not at all acting like the defeated enemy. "You would have made a grand gift for my lovely but I don't think I would have liked the competition."

"Do I have to kill you to make a point?" Chris snarled with as much ferocity as any vampire was capable.

"I'll be taking my leave of you," Angelus smiled unrepentant as he turned his back to Chris and started walking out the newly created fissure in the church wall. "But Slayer," he gave Buffy a little smile of suggestion as he stepped into the darkness. "I'll be waiting for you to come my bed. I'm sure it will be as good for you as it will be for me."

And with that he was gone.


	10. Epilogue

****

Epilogue

The Eternity of Minutes 

The aftermath was like a battlefield after the sound of canon fire had died. 

They had won the day but none of them felt the pleasure of victory. Buffy was shaking in the wake of Angelus' words and too many seconds ticked by as she tried to remind herself that the meeting that Angleus had taken such relish in stating prior to his departure was already a thing of the past for her. The wounds he had sough to inflict were long ago healed and if there was some consolation to be had, Angel himself had seen to it that Angelus would never escape again. Of course, he had left Buffy to do it but in her heart, she knew he was just as torn as her about the decision. Unfortunately, all the rationale in the world could not change the fact that he had once again cleaved her heart in two and left it at her feet in bloody tatters.

"Buffy," Ezra Standish made his way to her, clutching his injured hand because he could see the shattered look in her eyes she tried so hard to hide. He had looked in the mirror too many times himself and had been confronted by the same mask.

She looked up at him, lips quivering and did not resist when he pulled her to him in a warm embrace because she needed it.

"I'm okay," she said softly into his coat, careful not to aggravate his injured hand. "He just gets to me that's all."

Ezra who knew something of Buffy's history with Angelus understood completely. "He prides himself in being cruel to mask his fear of what the future holds for him. I believe that what he has seen did frighten him and his decision to withdraw from Four Corners reflects just how much. You tell me he is not one to relinquish his obsessions. What he has seen has no doubt shaken him. I have no doubt that until he feeds upon his gypsy victim, he will spend every waking moment until then trying to avoid his situation."

"He won't," she replied after a while and pulled away from Ezra, drying her eyes. "Thank you," she replied gratefully. "I needed that."

"The least I could for family," Ezra crooked a little smile in her direction.

Buffy returned his smile and looked around the room, taking account of the destruction that had followed in the wake of Angelus' retreat. Vin was helping Tara to a pew. The young Wiccan looked exhausted and Buffy felt a wave of concern over her effort, not to mention intense gratitude at giving them the way to drive Angelus away. However, it appeared as if Tara was in good hands with Vin tending to her needs. Nathan Jackson's instincts as a healer had kicked in as he soon closed the distance between himself and Ezra to deal with the gambler's broken hand. The others had suffered minor bruises and cuts, which could be tended to later but for now her ancestor, seemed to be the most serious casualty of the battle.

Chris Larabee was peering through the fissure as if he could see through the darkness. Buffy had no doubt that Chris would not take Angelus on his word that he was leaving until the gunslinger could verify it himself. Chris was not one to take chances and as he stood at the edge of the hole created by the dynamite, he appeared like a dark god keeping an eternal vigil on the town that had earned his protection. The youngest of the seven appeared somewhat dazed with disbelief that the fighting was over. Buffy found herself smiling a little because it was the same expression she had seen on Xander too many times. However, that did not stop him from helping Giles to his feet where Angelus had struck him.

Then she caught sight of Spike.

The vampire was alone in the corner of the room, staring past the wooden pew that blocked the shattered window, seeing nothing. The expression on his face was one she could not fathom and his features seemed as if they were carved from marble. However what struck her most was the deep overwhelming sadness that seemed out of place on a face she knew mostly for its arrogance and its sardonic humor. The expression in his eyes drew her to him almost involuntarily, forcing her legs to move as she crossed the gap between them and knew as she approached that it was not merely distance.

"Spike?" She called out.

"Slayer," Spike turned to her and acknowledged her presence with that brief statement.

"You're hurt," she remarked, noting the blood on his abdomen.

"Its nothing that won't heal," he replied. 

"What's wrong?" She asked concerned even though she knew what it was. It was probably the same thing that was bothering her – Angelus' cruel words. 

"Nothing," he shrugged.

"Is it was Angelus said?" She ventured a guess, hoping to draw it out of him.

"No," he shook his head. "Its nothing you would understand."

"Try me?" Buffy urged. 

"He's right you know," Spike said not looking at her. "No matter what happens. You'll always love him."

There was no lying to him on this, Buffy was not even about to try. "I guess I will."

"I think I should go," Spike declared.

"Go?" Buffy stared at him with suspicion. "Go where?"

"Anywhere you're not," he met her eyes for the first time. "I think in the long run it will be easier. You don't love me, no matter how hard I wish it were otherwise. I'm just cutting myself up into pieces hoping that you might."

"You don't know that," she replied softly. "I do care. I just don't know how much."

"I can forever to find out," Spike confessed, feeling his inside ache with the words he was saying. Angelus had hurt him deeply. He hated that his Sire knew about his love for the Slayer but worse yet, he hated the fact that Angelus was right about every bloody thing he had said to both of them. "I would wait forever to find out but what scares me more than anything else is knowing that you might die before that ever happened."

"Spike please," her words escaped her in a strangled whisper. "I don't want you to go. I don't know if I can love you but I thought we were sort of friends. Maybe what's been happening between us has scared me a little and I haven't behaved better but I don't want you to go. You're the only one who seems to understand me right now, the only one I can stand to be around."

"What happens when that changes?" He met her eyes with a harsh unyielding stare. 

"I don't know," she admitted. It was the truth, she didn't. "I just don't want you to go just yet."

She reached her hand to his, praying that he would take it because the implications that he would not was more than she could stand. He was the one place that she could run to when all else seemed to hard lately and to know that he was gone, like Angel, Giles and Riley before him was a loss she could not endure. Perhaps this was insanity, this path they were spiraling down, a sickness that would kill him first before it took her, she could not rightly say for certain. 

All she knew was she needed him to feel.

Spike met her eyes and knew that for now, she was earnest in her desire to have him stay but her reasons for wanting that were so mixed now that even he had trouble discerning what her true intentions were. She was a mixed bag of contradictions, passion and glacial coldness wrapped up in the form of a beautiful young woman he would always love and even though he lived forever, she would kill him a thousand times before her own life ended. However, he belonged to her and so there was no question of what he would do, despite the brief moment of sanity that surfaced in his mind when he considered leaving her. 

He took her hand.

***********

Almost four days had passed since Angelus had freely chosen to leave Four Corners with his 'family' before the vampire hunters of Four Corners were certain the threat to Ezra Standish and the time line was done. Mary's inquiries at Eagle Bend and beyond indicated that a group of European travelers had boarded a train bound for Denver the night after their climatic battle in town. Mary continued to trace Angelus as best she could and by all accounts the Master Vampire had held true to his word that he and Four Corners were finished with each other. The Slayer remained in Four Corners none the less, taking up Mary's hospitality during the length of her stay, as did Tara. Giles and Spike seemed happier to remain out of sight at Chris' shack although the vampire did ride to town during the night to play lengthy bouts of poker with Ezra.

However, it was soon apparent that it was time to go home and as much as Buffy enjoyed getting to know her southern ancestor, none of the visitors from Four Corners could remain indefinitely. Buffy was eager to return to her life and particularly to Dawn. Although Dawn was almost sixteen, Buffy could not help feeling anxious about her sister's welfare and would not rest easy until she was back in her own time. However, she could not deny that she worried what would happen to Giles and Tara if they were to return to the future. The timeline that was home to them may not exist and if it did, she was not entirely pleased to send them back to a world where vampires ruled the night. However, Giles was adamant that he could not remain and was determined to return. Tara however, did not seem as certain.

During the remaining time left to them, Vin and Tara spent most of it together and it was plain to see that departure would be exceedingly difficult for both. Buffy wished things were otherwise, aware that the Tara she knew in the future was not this girl with whom the tracker was so smitten. That Tara would never know what Vin was to her because she would love Buffy's best friend Willow. At first, Buffy had found it strange to see Tara with anyone else but Willow but then the heart was never the most predictable fixture in one's body. After seeing them together, she knew without a doubt that Vin and Tara could be happy if things had been different. Unfortunately, there did not seem any way to resolve their situation and it soon came to leave Four Corners behind.

"Giles," Buffy spoke quietly to the Watcher late that night at Chris Larabee's ranch. The full moon had been replaced with the crescent version of itself and the witching hour was at hand for Tara to begin her spell to send them back. 

"I don't know whether you or Tara should come back with us," Buffy said sincerely concerned about what would happen to the Watcher and the Wiccan in the invocation of the spell to return them to the future. "I mean here, you have a chance of a future but you might not exist at all if you come back with us."

"Buffy," Giles sighed, aware that she was attached to him in the same fashion as she was to the Giles in her world. Secretly, he was pleased at the emotions she felt towards him but he had to do what was right. "We can't remain here. Our presence alone could harm the timeline."

"Giles, you and Tara are the most responsible and level headed people I know," Buffy exclaimed. "You wouldn't let anything like that happen."

"We don't belong here," Giles pointed out. "I know that there are risks but there's no other choice."

"I know," Buffy conceding, hating the fact that he was always so sensible. For once she wished he could throw caution to the winds and do something for himself. However, she supposed if he had done that, he would not have been the Watcher that had become more than her guide but her surrogate father. "I just don't want to see you hurt."

"Knowing the world is a better place because of what we managed here would be ample consolation if I did vanish into thin air," Giles responded with a warm smile. "Seeing you, what you've become, knowing that I had some part in the woman you've grown to be is more than I've ever hoped Buffy. Even if I exist as your Watcher with no idea of what might have been, nothing could make me prouder at this moment then being at your side. It has been my privilege to know you."

Emotions welled up in her eyes and she hugged him. "I always feels so good when you say that Giles, you have no idea how much."

She wished he could return home with her, so he could continue to be her Watcher but he was right. He would be as out of place there as he was here. "I guess we better get this started."

"I guess so," Giles nodded. "I'll go find Tara."

"Okay," she nodded slightly and saw Chris and Ezra waiting to say goodbye. 

Josiah was still too sick to travel although both Spike and Buffy had made their farewells to Josiah, JD, Nathan and Buck. Even though it was evident that Angelus and his family were not coming back, Buffy had a feeling it would take some time before Chris was confident enough to rest easy. The man was just as intensely protective of his friends as she was of hers and so she understood his inability to believe the danger had passed. Buffy also guessed that was likely the reason some of the in town while he, Vin and Ezra saw the Slayer off to her world.

"You okay Slayer?" Spike asked concerned. He had stepped aside to give her a moment with Giles but could tell that she was still worried about the Watcher's ultimate fate.

"Yeah," she nodded with a sigh. "I hope Giles coming back with us isn't a mistake."

"I'm sure it will work out," he remarked, although inwardly he did not think Giles would survive the trip back to his world. 

"This has been one hell of a trip," Buffy sighed as she approached Chris and Ezra. "I can't believe I'm related to that guy," she said mischievously and loud enough for Ezra to hear. 

"Tell me about it," Spike retorted. "I was sure _you_ were her sire." He looked in Chris' direction. "You're both intense enough to be related."

"Awww!" Buffy suddenly exclaimed. "Look at this!" She complained staring at a rip in her heavy coat. "You know much this thing cost? I could just die! I'm never going to be able to replace this!"

"And then again," Chris smirked at Ezra, "I can definitely see a family resemblance."

"And what does that mean Mr. Larabee? Are you indicating a love of fine clothes is some sort of failing? A good coat is hard to replace…." Ezra started to rant.

Chris met Spike's gaze and replied. "And you were saying?"

"Never mind," Spike gestured in defeat. "I stand corrected." 

"Well young lady," Ezra glared at both men briefly and cast his gaze on his future progeny. "I hope you will take care of yourself and remember some of the issues we discussed in regards to your duties as slayer. A Standish' first obligation is to oneself, Slayer or not. Duty is all well and good but you need to live for yourself and take your comfort where it comes. I know that it is harder said then done but when you come down to it, you have one chance to shape your life, do not waste it because it might go against your nature. Sometimes, you can surprise yourself with what gives you comfort."

Buffy knew that Ezra referred to Spike but she also knew that he had never thought it possible to find contentment playing lawmen in a town in the middle of nowhere. Ezra's goal had always involved the acquiring of wealth in large quantities. It was too his surprise, as every one else's that he learnt being rich did not always mean having money. Sometimes it was just having friends. Buffy supposed she had better start doing the same. Even without the issue that was Spike, her life had been trapped in a holding pattern lately. She had been going through the motions, to afraid to live or feel anything else. If she did not start caring about what she fought for, she would end up dead again and this time it would be something worse than a physical death but that of her spirit.

"I will, you old romantic." She teased.

"You were not going to bring that up again," he gave her a look. 

"I'm sure whomever she is will love that about you," Buffy chuckled and relished the crimson hue of his face. 

"I can still make that ride to a monastery," Ezra returned.

Buffy laughed and ended up embracing the gambler who returned it with just as much affection. He did not show it very often because such displays were often a source of embarrassment to him. But she _was_ family after all. He lowered his lips to her forehead and kissed her gently. 

"I trust I can rely on you William to keep her safe?" Ezra looked over Buffy's shoulder at Spike.

"She's a bit of pain really," Spike smiled dryly. "But I think I can manage. She's easy to handle once you get past the attitude." 

"Bite me Spike," Buffy retorted.

"With pleasure luv," the vampire grinned at her with an insufferable smile of satisfaction.

"You take care of yourself Spike," Chris replied. "Don't piss her off too much."

"That's impossible," Buffy quipped.

"Right," Chris shook his head wondering if he and Mary had ever sounded like that to their friends and prayed to God that they did not. It would just be too embarrassing. He supposed he would just have to work on his relationship with the lady and since they were sharing supper tomorrow night, it was a good way to get started. For the moment however, he could not deny that it had been interesting having Buffy around, vampires and demons notwithstanding that is. He hoped in her world, the spirited young woman would have some reason to keep fighting the good fight and not lose her heart. Whether or not she knew it, her heart was her greatest talent.

"You keep out of trouble," he gave her a patented Larabee look of stern warning laced with affection.

"I'll try _cowboy_," she teased and saw his brow arch in response.

"Probably ain't as easy to do I suppose, on the account that you got such a mouth on you," Chris could not resist adding.

"You have no idea," Spike started to say and received a dark look from Buffy for his trouble.

The conversation ended abruptly with the return of Giles who was accompanied by Tara and Vin, both of whom looked as equally saddened as one another did. Chris could tell by the expression on Vin's face that the tracker was barely holding it together and he ached inwardly for his friend. Chris who knew how hard it was to lose someone he loved, had perfect empathy with what Vin must be enduring at this point. He had hoped that through all this sorcery and supernatural forces that they had been subjected to this past week, a way would be found to keep the two of them together. Unfortunately, that had not been possible and so they now found themselves about to say goodbye to each other.

Farewells were exchanged but it was laced with a melancholy that no one could seem to get past. As the others stepped into the circle that would see the commencement of the spell that would send them home, Vin and Tara faced each other one final time. The others tried to ignore the painful moment they were enduring while at the same time, feeling a great amount of sympathy to the doomed couple. 

"I don't want you to go," Vin said desperately as he saw the circle and the candles on the ground in the clearing. 

"I know," Tara whispered as she placed her hand on his cheek, trying to give him some of her strength. Inside she was dying. She had not known what it was to feel love in such glorious waves of abandon and having known it, she did not think she could be without it again or him for that matter.

"I could take care of you," he swallowed, finding it hard to express emotions when he was so often bottled up but there was no choice. If he did not tell her how he felt now, he never would. "I'd do right by you."

Her eyes glistened with tears, wondering if he knew each word was a knife through her bruised heart. "I have to go," she stammered, glancing over her shoulder at the friends who were waiting, whose eyes spoke of their sorrow for her. "I'm sorry."

"I love you," he whispered. "Don't go."

"Please don't make this any harder," she was almost to the point of weeping. Another word and she would.

"I'm sorry," he collected himself as she started to pull away.

"I'll never forget you," she replied hurrying to the circle. 

Vin watched her joining her friends. He watched her eyes as she started to chant her words. He watched the others going on this journey with her holding her hand as if their presence alone could make the hurt any less. He felt Chris' hand on his shoulder, squeezing it tight, offering a gesture of support as he watched the only woman that he had really loved prepare to vanish out of his life forever. As the words she spoke became more fevered, her painful expression disappeared and suddenly he saw something else, something that reminded him of the medicine women when he lived with the Indians. The power emanated from her as the clouds began to rush towards them, blocking out the light of the moon. The air felt strange and Vin could feel tingles on his skin. When her eyes turned completely black, there was blinding light and a sound that could thunder, tearing through the air, making those who were remaining behind flinch. There was an instant of blinding light and suddenly, they were gone, vanished without a trace with only a wisp of smoke fading into the settling air.

They were gone, except for Tara.

"Tara!" Vin exclaimed as his feet started moving before his mind could grasp what had happened. Spike, Buffy and Giles were gone but she was still there, having dropped to her knees in the center of the circle. 

"What happened?" Chris demanded as Vin skidded to his knees in front of her. 

"Did it work?" Ezra's voice followed soon after. 

Tara raised her head slowly. She was panting hard and the exertion was more than she was going to be able to stand. This was definitely the last time she was doing this spell again, she thought as she wiped a smear of blood from her nose. 

"Tara, what happened?" Vin asked as he grabbed her by the shoulders to make him look at her. "I thought you had to go with them."

"I sent them back," Tara met his eyes with a weak smile. "I don't know if I can exist here but I know I don't want to exist there without you. I love you Vin."

He started to smile and responded by pressing his lips to hers in a kiss of passion. She felt so good and he knew that even if they had weeks or days, he did not care. She had chosen to stay with him and if took him the rest of his life, he would never make her regret it.

"I guess we'll just have to see how long we have together," he grinned when they finally pulled away from each other. "And make every minute last."

As Chris and Ezra watched their younger friend with his new love, they had a feeling that for Vin and Tara minutes could be an eternity.

**********

Rupert Giles woke up in his little flat in Bath with something of a start. 

For a moment, the Watcher had no idea where he had been even though the familiar surroundings of his bedroom and the sheets warmed by at least a couple of hours of slumber was evidence enough of what he had been up to. However, as he lingered there in his mattress, letting his gaze sweep across the room filled with boxes of belongings that he had not got around to unpacking yet, he could not help feeling as if he had been elsewhere. His dreams had been so vivid that he felt the need to go out and rent an old Yul Brynner western from the video store or in absence of, sit through another viewing of the Terminator. Most peculiar.

It would have been completely disturbing if not for the feeling that he had been with Buffy in the dreamscape and once again, he had been there when she needed him. Knowing that made him rest easy and as he laid back on his pillow, thinking about the Slayer that he had watched grow from a spirited young teenager to a woman in every sense of the word, the feeling that came over him was one of pride. Whatever course her life would take, Giles knew one thing for certain; she would never disappoint him. What she was and his part in it would be something he took to his grave because she had been more than just the Slayer he had been appointed to watch but the daughter he always wanted to have.

**********

The night after they had returned to the present and found everything as it was and as they remembered, Spike had a surprise visit from Buffy in his crypt. When they had realized that they were home, there was a moment of euphoria and pleasure before the realities of their lives once again fell over them like a mist. Buffy had been eager to get home to Dawn even though by their reckoning, neither she nor Spike had been gone for any more than a few hours. The body of the human who had given himself to Chronozon was still lying where Spike had killed him and after disposing of it, the duo went their separate ways. Spike did not expect to see Buffy for some time and anticipated that she would return when she had another itch to scratch. However, he had resigned himself to his fate. He was her creature, whether or not he liked it and until he gained the courage to leave her once and for all, that would not change.

He was in the middle of Passions when he caught her scent and heard her approach. He wondered if he was expected to perform once again for her pleasure but was rather surprised when she appeared with something that looked like an old family album and what smelt deliciously like pizza.

"Hey," she greeted sheepishly.

"Lost?" Spike asked in typical antagonistic fashion.

"Nah," she shrugged of his hostility, more than accustomed to it by now. "I thought I'd just drop in and see you. I brought pizza, no garlic."

"How thoughtful," Spike said sarcastically. "You going to feed me before you give me a tumble?"

"If you gonna be a pain in the ass I'll take my food and go," she gave him a look as she planted herself on the step behind his chair. "I actually had a reason for coming here other than just coming."

"Ooh nasty slayer," Spike smiled, becoming intrigued by this whole situation. "Alright, I give. What's the play tonight?"

"I found these," she said glad that he was giving up his annoying manner. "It's a family history that my mom put together a couple of years ago. I guess being a museum creator meant that she wanted to keep track of her own past, not just everyone else's."

"Anything about him in there?" Spike asked, naturally curious about Ezra Standish after everything they had been through in the town of Four Corners

"Not much, just a couple of pictures and a little bit of a history." Buffy remarked as Spike sat down next to her. She spread open the album to the pages in question that was covered in a collection of sepia toned photographs that were faded and worn from time. 

Spike's gaze immediately fixed on what appeared to be a wedding photo with Ezra Standish clearly the groom. His wife, a petite beauty whose hair and eye coloring were difficult to tell thanks to the black and white picture was looking at him adoringly and he could not help thinking that Standish' lady had Joyce's wan smile.

"I saw it too," Buffy smiled, noting the way he looked at her great, great grandmother Julia. "She looks a little like mom." 

"Say who she was?" Spike asked. 

"Yeah," Buffy pointed to a little paper clipping in the corner of the page. Spike did not have to ask whether or not it was from the Clarion News, some things were just too obvious. 

"Her name was Julia Pemberton," Buffy announced. "She owned the local emporium or something. Guess that meant she was rich." She could not help smiling thinking about the conversation she had with Ezra on that count. There was no way the gambler had married for money, not if the manner in which he was staring at his bride was any indication.

"Well at least you know he didn't join a monastery," Spike teased as his eyes scanned the other pictures. There were pictures of twin children born to the couple later on in their lives as well as large picture of the wedding guests since a photographer was something of a luxury so the habit was to fit as many people into the frame as possible. The wedding guests were all familiar to him and Spike had trouble believing that it was only a few days ago that he was talking to most of the people in the picture, not a century. That event was a hundred years into the past and the moment he had stepped back into their time, they were already long dead.

Chris Larabee was there, standing next to the lovely Mrs. Travis and it appeared that their positioning in the picture was not coincidental, the two were clearly attached. The picture was too faded to make out but Spike was certain he could see Chris' hand draped around the widow's waist. Considering that the gunslinger was too traditional to be so forward with a goodly Christian woman like Mary, Spike had to assume that they were married. However, it was who was standing next to Vin Tanner that caught his attention.

"What a minute, is that…..?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah," Buffy nodded having felt the same astonishment when she first saw the picture. "It's Tara."

"She stayed," Spike mused, not really surprised after the tearful farewell between the tracker and the lady. "Good for her."

"I wonder how long they had," Buffy sighed, leaning her head next to his shoulder. 

"Doesn't matter," Spike rested his head against hers, enjoying the intimacy she was showing him that was more than just sex. "They were together."

"You're a hopeless romantic of a vampire, you know that?" Buffy chuckled wondering what she was _ever_ going to do with him.

"I know," he nodded his head in agreement before meeting her gaze, "so fancy a shag then?"

"That's it," Buffy groaned, "I'm getting Mr. Pointy!" 

****

THE END

****


End file.
